JEE aspirant from Bihar hangs self in Kota, 13th suspected suicide this year

Kota: A 16-year-old engineering aspirant allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan inside his PG room here, police said on Thursday.

This is the thirteenth case of suspected suicide by a coaching student in Kota since January. The number of student suicides in Kota stood at 26 in 2023.

Sandeep Kumar Kurmi, a native of Bihar’s Nalanda district, was taking coaching for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in Kota for the last two years and lived in a paying guest (PG) room in Mahaveer Nagar - III, the police said.

At around 7 am on Thursday, the teen’s classmate went to his room. When he did not get any response, he peeped through the window and found Kurmi hanging from the ceiling fan, Mahaveer Nagar SHO Mahendra Maru said.

Kurmi’s classmate informed the PG caretaker who then informed the police, he said.

According to the SHO, the student committed suicide on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

No suicide note was recovered from the room, the police said.

Kurmi’s brother, Sanjeet, is taking coaching for the medical entrance exam NEET in Kota and lives in a separate PG room in Dadabari area, Head Constable Mahaveer Prasad said.

The two brothers reportedly lost their parents four years ago and their uncle was funding for their education, he added.

During a preliminary probe it was found that Kurmi was an average student and would often miss his coaching classes, the SHO said.

According to the police, the PG room where Kurmi lived did not have any anti-suicide device installed on the ceiling fan.

The district administration has made it mandatory for all hostels and PGs in the coaching hub to install anti-suicide devices in their rooms to prevent such cases.

An anti-suicide device is a spring-like structure which is attached to the ceiling fans. When an object weighing more than 20 kilos is hung from the fan, the spring attached to it expands and a siren goes off.

Like Kurmi, the last two coaching students who committed suicide in Kota were Bihar natives.

On June 26, NEET aspirant Hrishit Kumar Agrawal (17), from Bihar's Bhagalpur, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his rented accommodation here

Ayush Jaiswal (17), from Bihar's Motihari, committed suicide inside his PG room in Kota on June 16. He was preparing also taking coaching for JEE competitive exam.

Kurmi's body was handed over to his brother after a post-mortem on Thursday. A case of unnatural death has been lodged under section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and a probe is underway, the SHO said.