A NEET aspirant allegedly died by suicide by hanging herself in her room in Rajasthan's Kota on Saturday night ahead of the national medical entrance exam being held today, police said. She was to give the exam held at various centres across the country.
The girl was under 18 years of age and belonged to Madhya Pradesh's Sheopur, circle inspector at Kunhadi police station Arvind Bhardwaj told news agency PTI.
The student was scheduled to take the NEET-UG exam and had been living with her parents in Kota for the past several years. She had been preparing for the exam at a coaching institute in the town, police said.
The family members were reportedly at home at the time of the incident and found her dead around 9 pm. No suicide note was recovered from her room, Bhardwaj said.
He also said that no suicide note was found in her room and her body had been sent for a post-mortem examination.
This is the 14th case of suicide by a coaching student in Kota this year since January this year. A total of 17 cases of suicide by coaching students were reported in Kota last year.
The NEET-UG exam is scheduled for today at 5,453 centres in over 500 cities across the country. This year, over 22.7 lakh candidates have registered for the test.
"There will be three layers of monitoring on the exam day – at the district, state and Centre levels," a Ministry of Education (MoE) source said.
"To ensure smooth and secure conduct of the exam, mock drills are being conducted at all centres. These drills will help test readiness in terms of functionality of mobile signal jammers; availability of adequate manpower for frisking; and biometric authentication procedures," the source said.
Most of the centres this year are located in government and government-aided schools, colleges, universities, and institutions.
The ministry has said that cases will be filed against candidates found indulging in unfair means – before, during, or after the examination – under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, and penalised accordingly.
The strict measures come a year after alleged irregularities, including paper leaks, were flagged in the NEET-UG and PhD entrance NET exam, which put the integrity of the examinations under the scanner. The CBI is probing both matters.
The Centre set up a panel to ensure the "transparent, smooth and fair" conduct of exams held by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
Source: ANI
