Depressed with low marks, another Tamil Nadu NEET aspirant commits suicide

Tiruchirappalli: In the third such incident in Tamil Nadu and fifth since the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance (NEET) results were declared on Monday, a 17-year-old girl allegedly hanged herself at her home in Tiruchirappalli after failing to make the cut.

K Subashree was rushed to the hospital where doctors failed to save her. Her father informed the doctors that he found Subashree hanging from the ceiling in her room.

Subashree secured 24 marks out of 720 in medical entrance exam this year and had been depressed, her father, Kannan, said.

The cut off for open category candidates this year is 119.

She had scored 907 out of 1,200 in the Class 12 state board examination.

When Kannan returned home from work on Wednesday night, he found Subhashree to be visibly disturbed. He then tried to cheer her up, but she rushed to her room and locked herself.

"We thought she was upset and wanted to be alone, so we didn't disturb. She didn't even have dinner. When our repeated knocks on the door went unanswered, we got worried and broke it open. We were shocked to find her hanging from the ceiling. We rushed her to the hospital, but doctors couldn't save her," Kannan, a transport corporation employee, told news agency ANI.

DMK leader MK Stalin offered his condolences to the family on Twitter and blamed the NEET for "killing another child".

According to reports, another 17-year-old Dalit girl attempted suicide in Tamil Nadu' Viluppuram district by consuming some poisonous substance, but was saved. Astalakshmi, daughter of a labourer, had secured 37 marks in the NEET exam.

Subhashree's death comes days after 19-year-old Prateebha, daughter of a construction labourer in Viluppuram district, reportedly committed suicide for not getting enough marks in NEET.

Read: Tamil Nadu: Dalit medical aspirant kills self after failing to crack NEET

A 17-year-old student was also found dead by her parents who allege that she consumed poison after failing the NEET exam. The girl committed suicide at her residence in Tiruvannamalai.  

Also Read: Another 17-yr-old ends life after failing to crack NEET

18-year-old Jasleen Kaur jumped off a 10-storey shopping complex in Hyderabad on Tuesday after failing to get a good rank in the NEET exam, police said. She sustained severe head injuries and died on the spot.

Also Read: Low rank in NEET, 18-yr-old Hyderabad girl jumps off highrise

Pravar Mehandirata, 19, allegedly jumped off the eighth floor of a building in Delhi's Dwarka on Tuesday. A suicide note was found in his room in which he reportedly confessed to lying to his parents about his NEET score. A dupatta with a knot resembling a loop was also found on the bed in his room, police said.

Also Read: 19-yr-old NEET aspirant jumps off 8th floor in Delhi, dies

For nearly a decade, Tamil Nadu had banned the entrance exams for admissions to medical and engineering colleges. Seats were offered purely on the basis of marks obtained in Class 12 board examinations. The Tamil Nadu government had said NEET exam led to undue stress and meritorious students from economically marginalised sections and rural areas were unable to afford private coaching.

Less than 40 per cent of the students who had appeared for NEET in Tamil Nadu have been able to clear the examinations this year, far less than Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.