A 19-year old NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) aspirant, Vignesh, was found dead in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. He is suspected to have died by suicide, police said.
According to his parents, he was stressed due to the medical entrance exam to be held on Sunday. He had appeared twice for NEET earlier.
Vignesh's body was found in a well in a village, about 300km from the state capital Chennai.
"The youth has not left any suicide note. His parents say he appeared stressed, we are investigating what triggered to kill himself. He had not cleared NEET in his earlier attempts," said Ariyalur SP VR Srinivasan.
Three years ago another medical aspirant Anitha, a topper in class 12, had killed herself in the same district after she failed in NEET.
S Ramadoss, opposition leader from PMK appealed to the state government to provide Rs 50 Lakh as compensation to the student's family.
"If this situation continues, there is a threat of many students resorting to suicide every year due to fear and frustration over the NEET. To prevent this, the centre should come forward to permanently scrap the NEET," he added.
Several non-BJP ruled states have sought postponing the medical entrance exam this year amid rising number of Covid cases. Last week, the Supreme Court rejected a request to postpone the exam for the second time.
