A 17-year-old Class 12 student died by suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota on Friday, reported PTI.

The student, who was taking coaching classes for Joint Entrance Exam, had come to Kota from Bihar’s Champaran district in March this year.

So far, 18 students have died by suicide in Kota that is home to scores of coaching classes for entrance examinations.

The incident came to light when the student, who was last seen at around 11 am on Friday, did not answer repeated phone calls from his parents, following which the caretaker went to his room and found the door locked from inside, Deputy Superintendent of Police Harshraj Singh said on Saturday, reported PTI.

The caretaker reported the matter to the police after the student did not respond to his calls. The police broke into his room at 8.30 pm and found his body. The reason behind the suicide is yet to be ascertained, Singh said.

This is the second suicide reported in Kota this week. On Thursday, another student preparing for medical entrance exams had died by suicide, reported NDTV. Manjot Chhabra, who was from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, had come to Kota earlier this year and enrolled with a coaching centre to prepare for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.

Last week, the Centre had told Parliament that 98 students had died by suicide in higher education institutions in the last five years. Thirty-nine of the students who died were from the Indian Institutes of Technology, 25 each from National Institutes of Technology and central universities, four from Indian Institutes of Management, three from Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research and two from Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

Citing the data from the National Crime Record Bureau, Sarkar said the reasons behind the deaths included professional problems, sense of isolation, abuse, violence, family problems and mental disorders.