NEET Aspirant From Haryana Dies By Suicide In Kota, Parents Suspect Murder

A 20-year-old NEET aspirant was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in Kunhari area here, with his parents suspecting he was murdered, police said on Monday.

This is the eighth case of suicide by a coaching student in Kota since January. The number of student suicides in Kota stood at 26 in 2023.

Sumit Panchal, who hailed from Haryana's Rohtak, had been preparing for NEET at a coaching institute here for over a year, the police said.

His parents have demanded the registration of a murder case against unidentified persons and an impartial investigation into the matter.

On demand of the student's parents, a medical board was constituted to perform the autopsy, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Kaptan, who is investigating the case.

The body was handed over to the family after the post-mortem, they said. 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.

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 told PTI 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. 

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