Jaipur:

A 20-year-old student studying in Kota to crack the Joint Entrance Exam, or the engineering entrance test, died by suicide in his room on Wednesday. His death follows the suicide case of another JEE aspirant, a 19-year-old who was found hanging in his hostel room the previous evening.

Abhishek Lodha, 20, left a note stating that he felt he would not be able to clear the JEE, which is mandatory to get into the country’s top engineering colleges. “I’m unable to study. I am preparing for the JEE exams, but it’s beyond me. Sorry,” the note read.

Lodha, who was from Guna in Madhya Pradesh, had moved to Kota last May to prepare for JEE.

He was good in studies and had himself insisted on coming to Kota for coaching, said his elder brother Ajay. His uncle, who came to Kota to collect his body, said they spoke to him every day but he never expressed any stress about studies.

“He always said everything was good and going well. ‘I am busy with preparations’ is what he told us. The last time we spoke to him was the evening before the incident,” said his uncle.

The police, too, suggest it appears to be a case of exam stress.

“It appears to be stress. We will write to the administration to take action against the PG accommodation as the room where the student died did not have an anti-hanging device in the fan,” said Mukesh Meena, Vigyan Nagar police station in-charge.

The evening before, Neeraj from Haryana’s Mahendragarh was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room. This despite an anti-hanging device installed in the fan.

His father Babloo Prajapat said he had spoken to his son earlier in the afternoon and that Neeraj was planning to come home by the evening train. His younger son is also in Kota preparing for the NEET, or the medical entrance exam.

Calling for a fair investigation into the case, Mr Prajapat has questioned how his son died by hanging despite an anti-hanging device installed in the fan.

Rajasthan’s Kota, the coaching capital of the country, welcomes students from different states to prepare for competitive entrance exams. The downside, however, is a rise in suicide cases among students that poses a challenge to the counsellors as well as district administration.

Last year, the number of suicides in Kota had come down by 38% to 17 as compared to 24 in 2023.

Kota, Rajasthan:

A 20-year-old youth, who was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his PG room in Rajasthan’s Kota district, police said on Wednesday.

The deceased was identified as Abhishek, a resident of Guna in Madhya Pradesh, who had been preparing for the JEE at a coaching institute in Kota since May last year. He lived in a PG room in Dakaniya area under the Vigyan Nagar Police Station here.

It is the second case of suicide by a coaching student within 24 hours in coaching hub Kota as another JEE aspirant from Haryana, identified as Neeraj (19), was found hanging from a noose in his hostel room late Tuesday evening.

Vigyan Nagar Police Station SHO Mukesh Meena told PTI that Abhishek (20), a resident of Guna in Madhya Pradesh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his PG room.

The deceased youth had been preparing for JEE-Mains at a coaching institute here since May last year, he added.

The SHO said that they received information in this regard around 7.45 pm on Wednesday following which the police personnel rushed to the spot.

The youth’s body has been placed in the hospital mortuary for post-mortem to be conducted after the arrival of his family members, who have been informed of the tragedy, he added.

The SHO further said that no suicide note was recovered from the PG room and the reason behind this extreme step by the youth is yet to be ascertained.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)