Tamil Nadu: Girl found dead after failing NEET 2018, police suspect suicide by rat poison

Seventeen-year-old S Prathiba had appeared for NEET a second time this year to improve her score and study MBBS.

A 17-year-old girl who was found dead at her home in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district on Monday is suspected to have killed herself by consuming poison after she failed in NEET 2018, the nationwide examination to select students for undergraduate medical and dental courses.

Pratibha’s death comes a year after protests broke out in Tamil Nadu against NEET following the suicide of another student who petitioned against the national test. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

S Prathiba was a resident of Peruvallur village in Gingee taluk. V Murugesan, a neighbour, said Prathiba had cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) last year and qualified for studying traditional medicine Siddha . “She declined that and appeared for NEET again for the second time this year as she was firm in her dream to be a MBBS doctor,” said Murugesan.

Prathiba’s father Shanmugotam is a farmer and her mother Amutha is a farm worker. After Prathiba got 495 marks out of 500 in Tamil Nadu’s junior school exam, her father admitted her in a private school for her Class 12 education so that she had a better chance in pursuing of her dream of being a doctor.

Actor Rajinikanth expressed his condolence at Pratibha’s death. “Really it is a sad to thing hear. I express my condolence to the family of that girl. We all should take necessary steps to prevent such kind of things,” Rajinikanth told reporters at Chennai airport.

Last year, S Anitha killed herself in Ariyalur after she failed in NEET though she had secured 1175 marks in her class XII board examination. Anitha had a filed a petition before the Supreme Court against NEET and her death sparked protests across Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu opposes NEET, saying it puts students from the state at a disadvantage and is against the federal structure of India.