18-Yr-Old NEET Aspirant From Odisha Dies By Suicide In Kota, 3rd Case In 17 Days

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Kota/Bhubaneswar: An 18-year-old student from Odisha, preparing for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), allegedly died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota.

The deceased, identified as Abhijeet Giri of Mayurbhanj district, was found hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room in Ambedkar Colony under Vigyan Nagar police limits on Thursday night. He had enrolled for NEET coaching at an institute here in April 2024.

On being informed, police reached the spot and sent the body to hospital, where it has been kept at the mortuary. The postmortem will be conducted once once his family members arrives in Kota..

The incident came to light at around 8 pm on Thursday when a mess boy reached Abhijeet’s room with tiffin. “When he did not respond, the mess boy, along with 2-3 other boys from the hostel, forcibly opened the door and found him hanging from the ceiling,” assistant sub inspector at Vigyan Nagar police station Lal Singh Tanwar told TOI.

Preliminary inquiry revealed that the deceased boy attended classes regularly at the institute, he said, adding that no suicide note was discovered from the room.

The report further said that the ceiling fan in the hostel room was not equipped with an anti-suicide device, mandatory in guidelines issued by the district administration in an effort to prevent suicide by hanging.

Notably, this is the third death by suicide incident in Kota in just 17 days. Two JEE aspirants aged 19 and 20 from Haryana and Madhya Pradesh were found hanging in their PG rooms on January 7 and January 8 respectively.

Kota had reported 19 deaths by suicide in 2024 and 29 in 2023, raising serious concerns over the mental health challenges being faced by young students.