An engineering aspirant hanged himself in Kota, the fourth such death this year

On Saturday, police said a 16-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself at his grandparents’ house, less than 48 hours after another aspirant from Odisha committed suicide in his hostel room.

This is the fourth suicide case in the city famous for its coaching centers.

Authorities said no suicide note was found in the room. The incident took place in Jawahar Nagar area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.

According to police, Manan Jain, a Class 12 student from Indergarh town in Bundi district, had been living with his maternal grandparents for the last three years to prepare for the JEE exam.

The police received information about the incident around 9.15 am on Saturday and sent the body for post-mortem, ASI Jawahar Singh said.

The officer said Manan studied with his cousin until midnight on Friday. When he didn’t answer his calls the next morning, his cousin entered the room and found him hanging on the iron railing of the room’s window.

He said no suicide note was found in the room and the cause of the suicide was yet to be ascertained.

Manan’s family refused to conduct an autopsy but decided to donate his eyes before taking possession of the body, the ASI added.

Manan, who had been living in Kota for the last three years to prepare for the IIT-JEE exam, was an excellent student and was scheduled to appear for the JEE-Main exam scheduled on January 22, said his maternal uncle Mahaveer Jain.

Meanwhile, the body of 18-year-old Abhijeet Giri, who also hanged himself on Thursday, was handed over to his family after post-mortem. He was earlier reported as a NEET candidate, which was confirmed by his elder brother Bipin Giri.

On January 16, Abhijeet Giri, a native of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his hostel room in Ambedkar Colony in Vigyan Nagar area.

Bipin said his brother scored 93-94 per cent in class 10 and was a keen student, studied well and attended his coaching classes regularly.

He further said that Abhijeet last spoke to him over phone on Wednesday evening and told him that he would return home next month after the exam.

In 2024, 17 such cases were recorded in the city, which is an important center of coaching institutions.

On January 8, 20-year-old Abhishek, a JEE aspirant, allegedly died by hanging himself from the ceiling fan in his PG room. He hailed from Madhya Pradesh and was preparing for JEE from May 2024 at a coaching institute.

On January 7, another JEE candidate from Haryana, Neeraj, hanged himself from the hook of a ceiling fan in his hostel room.