A 16-year-old student from Chhattisgarh who was preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination died by suicide in his hostel room in Rajasthan’s Kota on Monday, reported The Times of India.

The student, identified as Shubh Choudhary, had been living in Kota for the past two years. His body was found hanging from the ceiling fan by the hostel warden.

This marks the third incident of student suicide in Kota this year. A total of 28 student suicides were reported from the coaching institute hub last year.

Police said no suicide note was recovered from Choudhary’s room.

“We are also probing why the hostel did not install spring-loaded fans as per the district administration’s guidelines,” Kota Deputy Superintendent of Police Bhawani Singh was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.

In August, the Kota administration ordered all hostels and paying guest accommodations to install spring-loaded fans in all rooms amid rising cases of student suicide.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had also told officials to form a committee to suggest measures to prevent suicides among students in Kota.

In September, Rajasthan notified a set of guidelines recommended by the 15-member committee constituted by Gehlot and headed by Rajasthan’s principal secretary for higher education Bhawani Singh Detha, reported the Hindustan Times.

The guidelines said that all students should be screened before enrolling in coaching classes and admitted based on their proficiency in the subject. It also suggested sorting students into divisions alphabetically and not on the basis of their academic performance and allowing only students in Class 9 and above to enrol.

The Rajasthan government had also introduced the Rajasthan Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2023, and the Rajasthan Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority Bill, 2023, to regulate private coaching institutes but both bills are yet to be passed.

The proposed laws recommend stricter monitoring of charges levied by private coaching centres and the cost of study materials borne by students.

Kota is home to scores of coaching classes for engineering, medical and civil services exams that attract lakhs of students every year.