Rachit Sondhya : “JEE Aspirant Found After 9 Days in Kota, Suicide Suspected”

The body of the JEE aspirant, identified as Rachit Sondhya, a resident of Rajgarh district in Madhya Pradesh, SP Amrita Duhan told reporters.

LONDON: The body of a 16-year-old JEE aspirant, who had been missing for nine days, was discovered on Monday night in a forest area in Rajasthan’s Kota, police officials confirmed. The boy, identified as Rachit Sondhya, went missing on February 11 after leaving his hostel in search of a routine test. He was last seen in CCTV footage near the Garadiya Mahadev temple forest in Kota.

Authorities have stated that the incident is being treated as a case of suicide, marking the fourth such tragic event involving students of various coaching centres in Kota this year. Additionally, two B.Tech students from different universities have also taken their own lives earlier this month.

Kota is renowned for its numerous coaching centres that prepare students for competitive exams. A 17-year-old JEE aspirant, Piyush Kapasia, has also been reported missing from a hostel room in Kota for a week, prompting an intensive search operation to locate him.

Sondhya, who was preparing for the IIT-JEE, was found deceased near the Garadiya Mahadev temple forest by police officials. A post-mortem examination was conducted, and the body was subsequently handed over to the deceased’s family members.

Special teams have been deployed to search for Kapasia, who remains missing at the time of writing. Police have initiated an investigation under section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to determine the circumstances surrounding Sondhya’s death.

Discovery of Belongings

Sondhya’s belongings, including his bag, mobile phone, power bank, room keys, and other personal items, were found approximately 200 metres from the temple a day after his disappearance. Following an extensive search effort involving police personnel, members of the Kota Municipal Corporation, and family members, the boy’s body was located stuck between two trees on a rock around a kilometre and a half from where his belongings were discovered.

Kapasia, originally from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, left his hostel room on February 13 for a test and has not been seen since. His family members reported him missing to the Jawahar Nagar police station, stating that the 17-year-old had been preparing for the IIT-JEE in Kota for two years.

Despite taking the recent JEE-Mains exam and scoring only 13 percentile, Kapasia’s whereabouts remain unknown. CCTV footage captured him at the Kota railway station carrying a bag, but his current location remains a mystery.