Exam stress leads to student's death

Afraid of scoring poor marks in the final exams, a Class XII student jumped off the Sardar Bridge into Sabarmati River on Sunday morning.



Manish, a student of Unnati School, Paldi, was to appear for his Class XII (commerce) exams. His friend, Prahlad Makwana, told the police that Manish was afraid of failing in the English exam.



The victim hailed from a modest background -his father Karsan Rawat is an autorickshaw driver. This seems to have played on his mind as he had not fared well in the final exams that were scheduled to get over on Monday.



The suicide has an element of mystery as the youth has not left behind any note to explain his behaviour. The victim's father said that Manish was suffering from a chronic stomach ailment, which, he believed, could be the cause for his suicide.



The incident took place at 10.45 am. Co-incidentally, Prahlad was passing by the same bridge on his scooter at that time. He spotted Manish standing close to the bridge's parapet.



"Prahlad said that when he called out to Manish and ran towards him, the youth jumped into the river. Prahlad rushed to the edge of the bridge and spotted Manish thrashing about in the river. Prahlad cried out for help, and watched helplessly as he does not know how to swim," said police.



Prahlad, in his statement to the police, has said that Manish was stressed out as he had not performed well in his exams, despite the fact that his father had invested a large chunk of his modest savings for his academic career.

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