A 20-year-old NEET aspirant was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in the Kunhari area of Rajasthan’s Kota, the police said on Monday (April 29). This is the eighth case of suspected suicide by a coaching student in Kota since January. As many as 26 students had died by suicide in Kota in 2023. The deceased student was identified as Sumit Panchal, who hailed from Haryana's Rohtak and he was preparing for NEET at a coaching institute in Kota for over a year, they added.
His parents have suspected murder and demanded the registration of a murder case against unidentified persons and an impartial investigation into the matter. A medical board was constituted to perform the autopsy upon the demand of the student’s parents, Assistant Sub-Inspector Kaptan, who is investigating the case, said.
The body of the student was handed over to the family after the post-mortem, he added.
When did the incident take place?
The student had allegedly hanged himself around 9 hours before his body was spotted by the hostel staff, the ASI said.
Panchal's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room at the hostel in Landmark City under the Kunhari police station limits on Sunday night, they said.
However, his parents suspected Panchal was murdered, citing that the injury on his neck from the rope was too deep to be caused by hanging, the police said.
A case of unnatural death under section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code has been lodged for initial investigation in the matter, they said.
No suicide note was recovered from the student's hostel room and the reason behind his extreme step is yet to be ascertained, Arvind Bhardwaj, Circle Inspector (CI) at Kunhari police station, said on Monday.
Panchal was supposed to take the NEET-UG exam next month, the police said.
He allegedly hanged himself sometime on Sunday noon but the matter came to light only around 9.30 pm when the warden spotted the body and informed the police, the CI said.
A police team rushed to the spot and recovered the body and shifted it to the mortuary of MBS Hospital for postmortem, he added.
In gross violation of safety norms, the hostel room did not have an anti-suicide device installed with the ceiling fan, which could have averted the tragedy, the officer added.
What did the family say?
Meanwhile, the deceased's father, uncle and grandfather who reached Kota on Monday morning to claim the body suspected foul play and claimed Panchal did not commit suicide but was murdered.
"Sumit was good at studies and would always assure us of securing a rank among the top ten. He cannot commit suicide," his uncle Surendra Panchal said outside the mortuary.
The wound on his neck is so deep that it couldn't have been caused by hanging, he claimed and demanded autopsy by medical board.
The student's family has also demanded the formation of a SIT for investigation in the matter, CI Bhardwaj said.
(With PTI inputs)
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