A 22-year-old NEET aspirant Pradeep Meghwal from Jhunjhunu district in Sikar, Rajasthan reportedly committed suicide on Friday.
Family members reportedly said that Pradeep was under a lot of stress after the cancellation of the NEET 2026 exam.
Meghwal was a resident of Gudha Godji, Jhunjhunu. According to Times of India (TOI), he had been preparing for the medical for the past three years.
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According to the report, he was staying in a rented room on Piprali Road and studying at the Guru Kripa Coaching Institute.
Pradeep was found hanging in his room, police said. They said he was taken to SK Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
Pradeep’s father told TOI that his son had been working for medical entry for three years and had done well this time.
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“Based on the answer key, the family expected him to score more than 650 marks and believed his selection was almost certain,” Rajesh Kumar, Pradeep’s father, told TOI.
The Udyog Nagar police have started investigating the incident.
Pradeep’s family reportedly said the 22-year-old returned to his hometown and lived with his siblings two days before the tragedy.
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He took his own life after his sisters went to bathe. He allegedly hanged himself in his room.
His sister discovered him on his return and alerted nearby residents and relatives.
The incident left the family devastated. “We invested almost all of our savings ₹8 to ₹11 lakh, towards his education,” the father told TOI, adding that the family had even put off building their own house as they wanted to ensure a bright future for Pradeep.
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Pradeep is among several NEET aspirants who died by suicide after the medical examination was canceled due to an alleged paper leak.
On Tuesday, the National Testing Agency (NTA) canceled the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET, held on May 3 amid allegations of a paper leak, leaving about 23 lakh students in the lurch.
The retrial is scheduled for June 21.
A 20-year-old NEET aspirant died after allegedly hanging herself at her residence in northwest Delhi’s Azadpur, police said on Friday.
Although no suicide note was found at the spot, the family members of the deceased suspect that she took the extreme step to cancel the national entrance test, a senior police officer was quoted as saying by PTI.
They also took the body to the crematorium without informing the authorities, claiming they were unaware of the legal formalities in such cases, the officer said.
“The victim was a NEET aspirant. We are investigating why she took the extreme step. No suicide note was found during the investigation,” the officer said.
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Another incident was reported in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur where 21-year-old NEET aspirant Ritik Mishra hanged himself at his house in Gangotrinagar locality on Thursday.
“This was Ritik Mishra’s third attempt at NEET and he was very confident that he would clear the exam this time,” said his father Anoop Mishra.
He told PTI that Ritik returned to the city from the village on Wednesday and did not hide the stress and suffering he was going through due to the cancellation of the exam.
“Ritik was under immense mental stress after NEET exams were canceled following reports of paper leak,” he told reporters.
