A 16-year-old student, who was preparing for the Indian Insitute of Technology - Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) along with 12th, allegedly died by suicide in his hostel room this morning, hours after the National Testing Agency published the answer key for the first edition of JEE-Main 2024, police said on Tuesday. This is the third case of this year despite concerted efforts to check such incidents in the education hab, where lakhs of students from across the country come to prepare for the competitive exams. A total of 27 students were reported to have died by suicide in the district last year.
The student is identified as Shubh Choudhary, whose body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in the Jawahar Nagar area. According to Circle Officer (CO) DSP Bhawani Singh, The student hailed from Chhattisgarh, was a student of Class 12 and had appeared in the JEE-Main 2024 examination. The National Testing Agency on Monday published the answer key for the first edition examination of JEE-Main 2024 and announced the results on Tuesday. According to police, he was preparing for JEE at a coaching institute and had been living in the hostel in the Jawahar Nagar area for two years.
After the boy did not respond to his parents' repeated calls on Tuesday morning, they asked the hostel warden to check on him, the CO said. On going to his room, the warden found Choudhary's body hanging from a ceiling fan and informed the police, he added. The teenager allegedly hanged himself some time on Monday night, the CO said, adding that no suicide note was recovered from his room and the actual reason behind the suspected suicide is yet to be ascertained. In gross violation of norms, the fan in the hostel room was not equipped with an anti-suicide device, the officer said. The body has been placed in a mortuary and a post-mortem will be conducted after the arrival of his parents from Chhattisgarh, he added, reported PTI.
Earlier, this year, an 18-year-old student killed himself because she failed in JEE. The police found a suicide note from her room, which read, 'Mumma and Papa, I can't do JEE. So, I am committing suicide. I am a loser. I am the reason. I am the worst daughter. Sorry, Mummy and Papa. This is the last option.'
On January 23, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET aspirant took his life, but no suicide note was found in his room. The student was identified as Mohammad Zaid from Moradabad.
In view of the increasing suicide cases, the Ministry of Education has issued guidelines to all coaching centres which state that no centre shall enroll students below the age of 16 years.
(With PTI Inputs)
