The educational coaching city, Kota appears in the headlines for tragic incidents—three student suicides back to back in just 48 hours. After 17-year-old medical student and 16-year-old, another Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) aspirant took his life by hanging himself from the ceiling fan. According to reports, the boy hailed from Bihar was preparing for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main and JEE Advanced 2019 exams. These cases have once again highlighted the issues of stress and parental pressure on students which leads to student suicides in Kota since 2013. The recent number suicides have now increased to 19 in the city. Dental Student Commits Suicide at His Residence in Madannapet, Alleges Harassment by College Staff in Suicide Note. 

The city’s police have identified the young aspirant as Jitesh Gupta, a resident of Hardobara in Siwan district of Bihar. He cleared the class 12 exams, for the past three years, Jitesh has been preparing for IIT JEE entrance examinations from a premier institute, the name of which has not been reported. The incident happened in the Christmas morning. His parents were calling in the morning. After getting no response, they called his friends to find out if their son was okay. His friends rushed to the hostel room and found the gate bolted from inside. They peeped through the window and saw the boy hanging from the ceiling fan. IIT Guwahati Student Commits Suicide at Campus Hostel! Leaves Note Saying She Wanted to Become a Teacher & Not Engineer. 

The Police were informed immediately who recovered the body and had placed in the mortuary of Maharao Bhim Singh hospital for post-mortem. The reason behind the extreme step is not known as no suicide note was recovered from his room. Within two days, another 17-year-old NEET student from Uttar Pradesh, Diksha Singh who hanged herself on Sunday noon, December 23. Just a day before that, another IIT aspirant, 16-year-old Deepak Dadhich took his life by hanging himself at his coaching institute’s upper storey room. IIT Madras Student Commits Suicide for Poor Attendance. 

For providing preparatory courses to the many engineering and doctor hopefuls, the city over the years has earned itself fame and initially being dubbed as the country’s coaching city. Along with its reputation of giving excellent educations and successful candidates to the famous institutes, Kota has also become infamous for its increasing number of suicide rates. The recent incidents have increased the tally to 19 since January this year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2018 10:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).