Kota, 26 April

Ranjit Sharma, a carpenter in Delhi's Tuglakabad, sobbed uncontrollably outside the mortuary of a hospital here as he waited to claim his son's body. The man and his wife had been in the city just a few days ago to take his NEET-aspirant son back home, but he had refused.

According to the parents, Roshan Sharma (23) had abruptly told them just a few weeks before the 4 May NEET-UG exam that he would not appear for it this year.

Just three days after they had left for Delhi, the body of their son was retrieved from the bushes near a railway track here early on Thursday with a preliminary police probe indicating that he had consumed a poisonous substance.

In between sobs, Ranjit Sharma said his son had been preparing for NEET for the past three years and had recently confided with his sister that he needed another year to get fully ready for the prestigious medical entrance exam.

"Our son was studious, scoring 550-600 marks in routine tests at the coaching institute," he claimed on Friday, struggling to wrap around his head the reason for the suicide just days before the exam. The perfect score for the NEET-UG exam is 720.

This is the 12th case of suspected student suicide since January in the city, considered the country's hub for competitive exam coaching. Last year, the city reported 17 suicides by aspirants.

According to Roshan's parents, he had himself decided to join a coaching institute in Kota and jumped to another institute in the city just after a year.

Ranjit Sharma told that they came to Kota on 22 April to take their son back to home, but he refused. When their son couldn't be found in his hostel they contacted him over phone, only to be told that neither would he sit for the NEET exam this year nor return home.

They returned home with his belongings, hoping he would follow them. When that didn't happen, the distraught parents kept calling their son, urging him to return home. Roshan had also shared with his sister over the phone that he wanted a year more to prepare for NEET, he added.

The police handed over Roshan's body to the family after post-mortem on Friday and lodged a case under section BNSS Section 194 (A) (enquiry on suicide) for investigation, Circle Inspector at Kunhadi police station Arvind Bhardwaj said.

The parents have not levelled any allegation, he added.

This was the second case of suspected suicide reported within 48 hours in the coaching city which has been under critical lens for the past few years for high rates of suicides among competitive exam aspirants, often attributed to them not coping well with the pressure of studies and high expectations from their families.

On 22 April, an 18-year-old NEET aspirant from Bihar allegedly hanged himself to death in his hostel room. In a note, the student said neither his family nor his preparation for NEET-UG was the reason behind his extreme step, police had said.