17-Year-Old NEET Aspirant Dies by Suicide in Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur

The 17-year-old student from Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district was found dead in her house in Sathampadi village.

Medical aspirants are demanding postponement of NEET exam until the coronavirus situation improves in Tamil Nadu.

(Photo: The Quint)

(If you are suicidal or know anyone in distress, reach out to the numbers of local emergency services, helplines, and mental health NGOs here.)

A 17-year-old resident of Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur district was found dead in her house in Sathampadi village on Tuesday, 14 September. The NEET aspirant had died by suicide, The News Minute reported, citing the teenaged girl's parents.

K Kanimozhi, who had found the NEET examination questions tough, had been unhappy since she had written the medical entrance test on Sunday, as per her parents, who are both lawyers.

"The girl after writing the exam had expressed to her parents about the paper being difficult and whether she may not clear it. Despite their parents offering support, the victim was unhappy," a police officer was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.

The student belonged to a Most Backward Class (MBC) community, and had scored well in the 12th grade, attaining 562 marks out of a total of 600, TNM reported.

Kanimozhi’s is the third suicide related to the NEET exam in the Ariyalur district, after the deaths of Vignesh in 2020 and S Anitha in 2017.

In another recent incident in the state's Salem district, a 19-year-old student was found dead on Sunday, hours before he was slated to attempt the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for the third time in a row.

(With inputs from The News Minute and The New Indian Express.)