Ahead of April 2 JEE exam, 18-year-old student found dead on Kota railway track
Police said the student who died by suicide late on Sunday had been living in Kota for about two years and was due to appear for the entrance exam on April 2 in Lucknow
JAIPUR: An 18-year-old student who had been living in Kota for the last two years to prepare for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to engineering colleges died by suicide on Sunday night, hours before his father was to reach the coaching hub in Rajasthan to accompany him to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh where he had to appear for the entrance exam on April 2.
His father told reporters that they were aware about students in Kota having to deal with extreme stress, and would ask him about it. But he never told them anything about it. “I was coming (to Kota) to take him today. But he might have thought this step was easier than speaking to me,” the father said.
Monday’s death takes the number of suicides by JEE or NEET aspirants in Rajasthan this year to 11. Of these, 10 students died by suicide in Kota while another in Jodhpur. In 2024, at least 23 students died by suicide in Rajasthan (20 in Kota), down from 27 a year ago.
Dharma Singh, assistant sub inspector of Kota government railway police (GRP), said the student’s body was found on a railway track near the Kota station on Sunday night. “We identified him on the basis of his identity card and other belongings in his pocket. He is a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur,” Singh said.
The police officer said the student had been in Kota for two years and had been staying in a hostel in the city’s Rajeev Gandhi Nagar area to pursue the JEE course at a reputed coaching centre.
Police said no suicide note has been found. “His father is a scientist and was all set to visit Kota on Monday to take him back for the exam,” Singh said. The body would be handed over to the student’s father after the autopsy.
Monday’s tragic death comes less than a week after the suicide of two NEET students - one in Kota and another in Jodhpur- on March 25.
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