Kota: 16-year-old JEE aspirant dies by suspected suicide

A 16-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room in Kota, hours after the National Testing Agency published the answer key for the first edition of the JEE-Main 2024, police said on Tuesday, 13 February.

This is the third case of "suspected suicide" by coaching centre students in Kota so far this year, they added.

Shubh Choudhary's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in the Jawahar Nagar area in Kota on Tuesday morning, said circle officer DSP Bhawani Singh.

Choudhary, who hailed from Chhattisgarh, was a student of Class 12 and had appeared in the JEE-Main 2024 examination, Singh said. However, the police is yet to ascertain the status of his results, he added.

The National Testing Agency on Monday, 12 February, published the answer key for the first edition examination of the JEE-Main 2024 and announced the results on Tuesday.

Choudhary had been preparing for JEE at a coaching institute in Kota and was living in a hostel in the Jawahar Nagar area for the last two years, the police said.

When 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. The warden found the youth's body hanging from a ceiling fan and informed the police.

The teenager allegedly hanged himself sometime on Monday night, the CO said, adding that no suicide note had been recovered from his room. Hence, 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.

This is the third case of suspected suicide by a coaching student in Kota since January. A 27-year-old BTech student also hanged himself earlier this month.

A total of 26 cases of alleged suicide by coaching students were reported in Kota in 2023, the highest ever in 10 years. Around 2.5 lakh students come every year to this coaching hub from across the country to prepare for competitive entrance exams for admission to engineering and medical courses.