16-year-old JEE aspirant hangs self in Kota, third 'suicide' by coaching student since Jan

Kota: A 16-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room here, 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 suspected "suicide" by coaching students in Kota this year so far, they added.

Shubh Choudhary's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in the Jawahar Nagar area here on Tuesday morning, Circle Officer (CO) DSP Bhawani Singh said.

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 published the answer key for the first edition examination of JEE-Main 2024 and announced the results on Tuesday.

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

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.

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

Twenty six 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 for preparation of engineering and medical entrance exams.