A 16-year-old JEE aspirant allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room here, hours after the National Testing Agency published the answer key for the first edition of JEE-Main 2024, police said on Tuesday.
This is the third case of suspected suicide by coaching students in Kota this year so far, they added.
The boy, who hailed from Chhattisgarh, was a student of Class 12 and had appeared in the JEE-Main 2024 examination, Circle Officer (CO) DSP Bhawani Singh said.
However, the police is yet to ascertain the status of his results, he added.
The National Testing Agency on Monday published the answer key for the first edition examination of JEE-Main 2024 and announced the results on Tuesday.
The boy had been preparing for JEE at a coaching institute here and had been living in the hostel in the Jawahar Nagar area for two years, the police said.
After the boy did not respond to his parents' repeated calls on Tuesday morning, they asked the hostel warden to check on him, they added.
No suicide note was recovered from his room and the actual reason behind the suspected suicide is yet to be ascertained, the police said.
In gross violation of norms, the fan in the hostel room was not equipped with an anti-suicide device, the officer said.
The body has been placed in a mortuary and a post-mortem will be conducted after the arrival of his parents from Chhattisgarh, he added.
Twenty-six cases of alleged suicide by coaching students were reported in Kota in 2023, the highest ever in 10 years. Around 2.5 lakh students come annually to this coaching hub from across the country to prepare for engineering and medical entrance exams.
(Those in distress may contact Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health suicide prevention helpline 011-4076 9002)
