Two NEET aspirants allegedly died by suicide in two separate incidents occurred within four hours in Rajasthan’s Kota on Sunday (August 27), shooting up the total death count to 22 this year, the police said.
17-year-old Avishkar Shambaji Kasle, who hailed from Maharashtra's Latur district, jumped off the sixth floor of his coaching institute’s building in Jawahar Nagar at around 3.15 pm, soon after taking test on the third floor, they added.
He was rushed to the hospital, however, he succumbed on the way, Vigyan Nagar Circle Officer (CO) Dharmveer Singh said.
Second suicide
Just four hours after the incident, another student, 18-year-old Adarsh Raj who was also an aspirant ended his life by hanging himself in his rented flat under the Kunhadi police station area at around 7 pm, police said.
The deceased’s sister and cousin broke open the door of his room after they reached around 7.30 and found him hanging off the ceiling, Circle Officer (Kunhadi) KS Rathore said.
Raj was reportedly breaking when he was taken down, however, died on the way to the hospital, he said.
He was a native of Bihar’s Rohtas district. He was preparing for NEET UG in a coaching institute in Kota for a year and lived in a rented flat with his sister and cousin, who are also preparing for competitive exams, police said.
Kasle was preparing for the NEET UG in Kota for three years and lived in a rented room with his maternal grandparents, CO Singh said.
The police said that there were no suicide notes recovered from either of the students’ rooms.
Kasle took a test on the third floor of the institute and jumped to death from the sixth floor, Vigyan Nagar CO said.
He said that the spiral stairs of the building were uncovered and an investigation would be conducted as to how the student climbed to the sixth floor amid the presence of staff and other students.
“The reason behind Kasle’s suicide is likely to be his low marks in the routine tests at the institute as he was scoring well earlier but dropped from 575 marks to 288 marks in the last routine test,” CO Singh said.
According to ASP (Kota city) Bhagwat Singh Hingad, Raj also took a routine test at his coaching institute in the noon session on Sunday and was reportedly scoring low marks due to which he was upset.
The post-mortem of both the bodies will be conducted on Monday after the arrival of their parents, police said.
The suicides of Kasle and Raj have taken the total count of suicides by coaching students in Kota to six this month.
Fifteen coaching students died by suicide last year in the coaching hub, where around 3 laks students from across the country are currently preparing for various competitive exams in different institutes of the city.
Tests stayed for two months
Tests or examinations at coaching centres in Kota have been stayed for two months in continuation of "providing mental support and security".
(With PTI inputs)
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