A 16-year-old engineering aspirant died by suicide after hanging himself from a ceiling fan in his PG accommodation in Rajasthan's Kota, police said on Thursday.
The latest case of suicide was 13th such incident in Kota since January 2024. There were 26 cases of suicide reported from the coaching hub last year.
The victim, Sandeep Kumar Kurmi, was a native of Nalanda district in Bihar and was enrolled in a coaching for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) in Kota for the last two years. He lived in a paying guest (PG) room in the Kota district of Mahaveer Nagar- III, PTI quoted police as saying.
On Thursday, at around 7 am, a classmate of the teen went to his room. When he did not get any response, he peeped through the window and discovered that Kurmi was hanging from the ceiling fan, Mahaveer Nagar SHO Mahendra Maru said.
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The caretaker of the PG was alerted by the classmate, who subsequently informed the police. The SHO mentioned that the suicide took place between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with no suicide note found in the room, according to the police.
Kurmi’s older brother, Sanjeet, also resides in Kota and is preparing for the medical entrance exam NEET in a separate PG accommodation in the Dadabari area, informed Head Constable Mahaveer Prasad. He also added that education of the both brothers has been supported by his uncle since the demise of their parents four years ago.
Preliminary Investigation
A preliminary investigation revealed that Kurmi was an average student who frequently used to miss his coaching classes, the SHO further added. As per the report of the police, it was also disclosed that the ceiling fan in the PG room of Kurmi did not have an anti-suicide device installed.
To prevent such incidents, the district administration has declared a mandate to install anti-suicide devices in all hostels and PG accommodations in Kota. An anti-suicide device is a structure that resembles a spring and is fixed with ceiling fans. The fan's spring expands and emits a siren when an object heavier than twenty kilograms is dangled from it.
The body of Kurmi was handed over on Thursday to his brother after a post-mortem. A case of unnatural death has been lodged under section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and an investigation is underway, the SHO said, PTI reported.
Like Kurmi, the two most recent coaching students who died by suicide in Kota were also from Bihar. On June 26, NEET aspirant Hrishit Kumar Agrawal (17) from Bhagalpur similarly took his life, followed by Ayush Jaiswal (17) from Motihari on June 16, who was also preparing for the JEE exam.