Another student goes missing from Rajasthan's Kota

Aryan Mitra, 17, from Siliguri in West Bengal, is preparing for the NEET exam alongside his XII Board exams. However, on February 21, he left his hostel and has not returned since, missing his Board exams scheduled for February 22.

Jaipur: The spate of student disappearances from India’s coaching hub Kota appears to be posing another challenge for the administration and police, with news emerging of yet another missing NEET aspirant.

Aryan Mitra, 17, from Siliguri in West Bengal is preparing for the NEET exam. He was also set to appear for his XII Board exams. On February 21, he left the hostel and has not returned since, missing his Board exams scheduled for February 22. Following a missing report filed in the Kunhadi area of Kota, the police managed to trace his location to Agra.  

Meanwhile, another student Piyush Kasania, who had been missing for the last 10 days, was found in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. Piyush went missing from his hostel in Kota’s Jawahar Nagar area since February 13 after the JEE Mains results were declared. He is also a XII standard student and his Board exam centre is at Jhalawar. He too failed to take his Board exams. 

The police were following all leads available to them and initially traced Piyush in Haridwar before finally finding him in Dharamsala. He is said to be suffering from depression.   

Every year, at least two lakh students come to Kota to take rigorous coaching classes to crack NEET and JEE. Last year alone, Kota witnessed 26 student suicides, with five already reported this year.