Prateek Tanmay
2 min readPuneUpdated: Jul 27, 2026 10:54 AM IST
A 19-year-old medical aspirant allegedly died by suicide at her home in Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district Saturday after falling short of the qualifying cutoff in the NEET-UG examination.
Ankita Suresh Sangale, a resident of Jalalpur village in Karjat taluka, left behind a purported suicide note indicating she was under severe distress over her examination results, the police said.
A team from the Karjat police station arrived at the scene and sent the body for a post-mortem examination.
“The preliminary investigation and the note left by the student indicate she was under severe stress due to her performance in the NEET-UG exam. We have registered an accidental death report, and further investigation is underway,” Inspector Hanuman Gaikwad said.
Ankita, whose father is a farmer, is survived by her parents and brother. On the afternoon of July 25, while her father and brother were visiting the temple town of Pandharpur and her mother was busy with domestic chores, Ankita went to her room. The death came to light at around 4.30 pm when her mother went to check on her.
Speaking to the media, Ankita’s uncle Anna Sangle shared details of her preparation and the mental toll of the examination process. “Ankita appeared for the NEET-UG examination on May 3 and was confident about her performance. However, following the cancellation over the paper leak, she had to sit for the re-examination on June 21,” he said.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the results of the NEET-UG retest on July 16.
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“She scored 166 marks, falling just short of her category cutoff of 177. She had been feeling extremely tense since then,” added Ankita’s uncle.
Her last rites were performed on the night of July 25.
The Indian Express reported earlier that in the weeks between the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 and the nationwide retest scheduled for June 21, at least 12 students across the country allegedly died by suicide.
