Father blames NEET ‘scam’ as aspirant dies by suicide in Kota

His father, Khacharmal, held the NEET-2024 exam ‘scam’ responsible for the extreme step taken by the youth. However, he did not level any allegation in the report to the police in the matter. “The NEET exam agency and rich people, who manipulated the NEET exam, killed my son,” he said.

When state education minister Madan Dilawar was asked on Thursday about the rising number of students dying by suicide, he said, “Incidences like students’ suicide occur in proportion to the population of our state.”

Parshuram last spoke to his father on Wednesday around 1.15 pm and expressed his wish to return home. However, when the family later tried calling him back on his phone, they got no response. He allegedly committed suicide in the hostel room late at night.

“We never imagined in our dreams that this would happen to our son,” he added.

SHO of Jawahar Nagar police station, Hari Narayan said the police got information about the suicide around 11.30 pm on Wednesday when the hostel owner knocked on the youth’s room after he failed to notice him since evening. He immediately informed the police, which rushed to the spot with a forensics team, broke the door open, recovered the body and shifted it to the mortuary of MBS Hospital.

“We did not recover any suicide note but we are investigating the matter,” the police officer said.

Khacharmal, a mason by profession, reached Kota on Thursday morning. While talking to the media, he said, “We got a call late on Wednesday night that my son was not feeling well. We were not told anything else initially. However, we were later informed that he had died by suicide. My son was outstanding in studies and scored marks that rewarded him a scholarship from a coaching institute in Kota. He had prepared for NEET in 2022 from Kota, in 2023 from Mathura and was now back in Kota. This was his second attempt. He had scored 647 marks in the first result this year, but in the revision results, his marks came down to 247, which left him heart-broken.”

The body was handed over to family members after post-mortem on Thursday noon and the police have lodged a case under section 194 of BNS in the matter. —With PTI