'I am taking my life': Neet aspirant dies by suicide in Hyderabad day before retest
Just a day after the tragic passing of a student, another Neet aspirant, Sheikh Sana, took her own life in Hyderabad on Saturday, June 20, as reported by ANI.
The oldest of three sisters, the 19-year-old student was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room, with a note stating no one was responsible for her decision, according to local media outlets.
“No one is responsible for my death. I am taking my life.”
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The incident, which took place just a day before the controversial retest, has been registered by the Miyapur Police and is currently under investigation.
Initial reports suggest academic and societal pressure was behind the drastic measure.
Sana had appeared for Neet last year, but did not clear the examination, after which she started taking coaching classes. She then went on to take the test last month, where she scored over 90 per cent, as per police information.
The young Hyderabad resident was living with her two sisters and an aunt as she prepared for the exam. Her father reportedly works overseas in a Gulf country and her mother had left to visit a neighbouring town few days before her tragic demise, according to media reports.
On the morning of her passing, Sana left for her room after eating breakfast. When she did not come out for hours, her sisters — who had assumed she was studying — went in and found her body.
The case was then registered and her final remains were sent for a post-mortem examination. Sana’s sisters — who are currently in Grade 10 and Grade 6 — are being taken care for by their aunt, the outlets added.
Series of young lives lost
Sana’s case is not the first one that has rattled the country in the last few months. More than a dozen students set to appear for the June 21 NEET re-examination have died by suicide in recent days.
On Friday, June 19, Avantika Maurya, a young Neet aspirant from Madhya Pradesh succumbed to her injuries after allegedly attempting suicide the day before by jumping off a building roof.
She was reportedly under significant mental stress due to the ongoing NEET exam controversies and the resulting uncertainty surrounding her future.
A resident of Balwari Khurd in Dhar district, she had been living in Indore with her elder sister for the past three years to prepare for the exam.
On Thursday night, as she was talking to her cousin over the phone, she went to the terrace, during which the incident took place. She was rushed to a private hospital in critical condition and later shifted to MY Hospital, where she passed away on Friday morning.
While the police are investigating all angles, her family believes Avantika had been undergoing mental stress for a long time.
Meanwhile on June 16, a 24-year-old student, Riya Kumari, committed suicide at her home in Dehradun in India’s Uttarakhand state, leaving a note behind.
The police said she had been preparing for several exams and would spend hours studying in her room. Her family did not opt for a postmortem and Riya was cremated later on Tuesday.
Just a day before Riya took her life, Umesh Mali, 22, who was to make a third attempt for Neet, also took the drastic measure. Umesh was staying with his siblings in a flat in Nawalgarh in Rajasthan and his body was found in his room, hanging from a fan, when his sister and brother returned in the afternoon. “Sorry! I am going very far away; I don’t know where I am going,” he wrote in the note he left behind for his family members.
Last month, Pradeep Mahich from Sikar in Rajasthan, who was also preparing for his Neet exams, was distressed by the paper leak. His family had taken loans to enable him to prepare for the exams, but Pradeep decided to end his life. His body was found hanging from the fan.
Another student, Bhagyashree, 18, was doing well in her studies and had cleared her PUC exams with 92 per cent marks. “There was no distress or problems in our family,” her father Raja Shekhar, told the media in Kalaburagi, Karnataka. “She had performed well in Neet and everything was going well. Maybe she had some feelings in her mind about sitting for it again.” The police said Bhagyashree, who committed suicide towards the end of May, had not left behind any note.
Inputs from Nithin Belle
