A 19-year-old student was found dead at her home in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj district, a day after she reappeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), police said on Tuesday.
In a letter she allegedly addressed to her brother in her question paper, she wrote in Hindi that she was “unable to do anything”.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the student was upset with her NEET performance. Investigators suspect that stress related to the examination may have contributed, although the exact circumstances of her death have been examined.
The student aspires to become a doctor and follow in the footsteps of her brother, who cleared NEET in 2021. Her family said they found her hanging and took her to a district hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead.
Nirbhay Kumar Singh, a police officer, said they confiscated the question paper for forensic and handwriting examination. “The body has been sent for postmortem and all aspects of the case are being investigated. Further action will be taken based on the findings,” Singh said.
The student’s brother said that there was no pressure on her from the family. He added: “She evaluated her expected performance on the exam and appeared upset.” He added that their father, a farmer, worked tirelessly to support the education of his three children and that the family was devastated by the loss.
NEET retest
The NEET (undergraduate) exam has been rescheduled to June 21 after the exam was canceled on May 12, though 2.27 million students had taken it across 551 cities. Central agencies found that the question paper had been hacked. This was the second time in two years that NEET had come under scrutiny
A 20-year-old student, who was scheduled to appear again for NEET, died after falling from the third floor of a building in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore last Thursday. This was the latest in a series of such cases since the test was canceled on May 12 due to the paper hack.
Two NEET aspirants died in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan last week, and police suspect both cases to be suicide. In Dehradun, a 23-year-old woman who was preparing for NEET was found dead in her room. A handwritten note recovered from the spot allegedly indicated that the woman was depressed.
In Rajasthan’s Sikar district, a 22-year-old NEET student was found dead before his third attempt at NEET.
Discussing suicides can be triggering for some. However, suicides can be prevented. If you need support or know someone who does, please contact your nearest mental health professional.
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