After taking the NEET exam on May 3, the 22-year-old told his father in a village in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district that it had gone so well that even “God can’t stop me from qualifying”. So when a retest was announced later that month following a paper leak, the Dalit youth was distraught. He died by suicide three days later.
The 22-year-old was one of at least 12 students who died by suicide in the little over a month between the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 on May 12 and the June 21 retest. The re-examination was ordered after the suspected leak of a 150-page ‘guess paper’ circulated in Rajasthan’s Sikar, with investigators finding links to an interstate network based in Maharashtra’s Latur.
All 12 aspirants were scheduled to take the June 21 retest. In at least five of the 12 cases, no suicide note was found.
Rajasthan
On May 18, the 22-year-old’s sister had gone to take a shower when he took the extreme step. “After his sister found him, he was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead,” his landlord said.
The son of a daily wage labourer, he lived in Sikar with one of his three sisters. Since his death, the family has refused to immerse his ashes in the Ganga until its demands are met, including Rs 2 crore compensation and a government job for a sibling.
For another family in Sikar, June 15 began like any other day. That morning, the son of a Mumbai-based businessman returned home after dropping his mother at their native village in Jhunjhunu and found that his brother and sister had left for coaching classes.
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An IAF Mi-17 helicopter takes part in a trial run ahead of the NEET-UG re-examination, in Tamil Nadu. The exercise was conducted as part of arrangements to airlift sealed question papers under enhanced security measures for the re-examination scheduled on June 21. (PTI)
According to the police, the siblings returned in the evening to a quiet house and a suicide note that read: “I’m going away from this world, I’m sorry”. The 22-year-old had hanged himself from a ceiling fan.
Goa
In a note found at his home on May 12, the 17-year-old wrote that he “no longer wished to appear for competitive exams”. An athlete who had represented his school in several hockey tournaments, the teenager died by suicide between 10 pm and 11 pm that night, the police said.
While it remains unclear whether the suicide was linked to the exam cancellation, a panchanama recorded by police cites his family as attributing it to “pressure of exam performance”.
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Uttarakhand
When the mother of the 24-year-old found her room locked on June 16, she panicked and immediately alerted her husband, a retired Army personnel, police said. She had not come out for breakfast that morning, and the family knew of the intense pressure she was under ahead of the June 21 retest.
When they forced open the door, they found her hanging from a ceiling fan with a dupatta. The suicide note she left was apologetic, police said. “I love you, Papa; I am sorry. This is not due to anyone’s fault; this is due to my incompetence,” the letter said.
Gujarat
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A neighbour potted him lying by the building in a pool of blood past midnight on June 18. The 17-year-old had cut the pigeon net on his sixth-floor balcony before taking the plunge, police said.
“He died by the time the paramedics arrived,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) D.V. Rana of Ahmedabad’s L Division said.
For the family, the death came as a shock. “He was not only taking the NEET retest but had also applied for a pharmacy course,” his uncle said.
Tamil Nadu
Days before she was scheduled to take the retest, the 19-year-old from Coimbatore wrote a WhatsApp message voicing her distress about the exam. Having already taken it twice, she was uncertain of her chances and sent an emotional message to relatives saying she was “afraid to take the test again”, police said.
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On June 17, the 19-year-old died by suicide. No suicide note was recovered, police said. In a state that has long viewed NEET as a structurally discriminatory examination, the death led to renewed calls for its abolition.
Madhya Pradesh
In a note to her parents, the 18-year-old from Mauganj district wrote about her shaken faith. The daughter of a cook in Nagpur, she knew her parents had taken a Rs 3 lakh loan to fund her education and believed she had to succeed.
When the re-examination was announced just days after she felt her exam had gone well, she found her strength waning, police said. On May 20, she died by suicide.
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“Mom and Dad, you had faith that your daughter would become a doctor, but I no longer have the courage to take the NEET exam again,” she wrote.
According to police, she had appeared for NEET for the first time this May after preparing for several years at a coaching institute in Nagpur.
“She withdrew following the retest announcement,” her father said. “She felt all her hard work had gone to waste.”
Her fears would have been understood by a 19-year-old from Indore. Daughter of a government doctor, this 19-year-old had become quiet lately, barely speaking and answering in monosyllables.
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On the night of June 18, she fell from the upper floors of a residential building and succumbed to her injuries the following day.
There was no suicide note, and police are investigating whether the fall was accidental or linked to other circumstances. Investigators said she was speaking on the phone shortly before heading towards the terrace.
Uttar Pradesh
As the retest date drew near, the 17-year-old kept telling her parents she was struggling to focus.
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“The girl’s father, who is a railway official, said his daughter had told them that she had done very well in the previous NEET exam,” Bazar Khala Station House Officer Brijesh Singh said. “She was very depressed after it was declared cancelled.”
She was found dead in the early hours of Wednesday. No suicide note was recovered, police said.
When the 21-year-old from Lakhimpur Kheri took the May 3 exam, he was determined to make it through. This was his third attempt, and he had spent four years preparing in Lucknow, carrying not just his own hopes but also those of his family.
On May 14, he was found hanging in his room. No suicide note was found. While his family linked his death to the uncertainty surrounding the NEET examination, police suspect personal relationship issues may also have played a role.
New Delhi
“This is it,” the 20-year-old from Lal Bagh in North Delhi’s Azadpur told her family when she took the exam for the third time. This time, she was certain she would make it.
Then the exam was cancelled on May 12. Two days later, she was found hanging in her room.
“Last year, she missed by just four marks. Her father had pinned all his hopes on her,” said her aunt.
Maharashtra
For as long as she could remember, the 18-year-old from Latur wanted to be a doctor. On May 25, she was found dead in Gondegaon village, with her father alleging that she had been under severe stress since the May 3 exam was cancelled.
“She had performed well in the exam and the cancellation left her disturbed,” her father said.
