The 18-year-old student, who had been preparing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) through a coaching institute in Nagpur, was found hanging in her room on May 20. Days later, a handwritten note recovered by the family has brought her final thoughts into public view, revealing the immense emotional burden she had been carrying.
“Mom and Dad, you had faith that your daughter would study hard and become a doctor, but I no longer have the courage to take the NEET exam again,” Akanksha wrote in the note. “I was scoring good marks in my first attempt, but now there is no guarantee that I will perform well again. I am sorry, Mom and Dad. I have ruined everything.”
Akanksha belonged to Maganiya village in Mauganj district. Her father, Krishna Kumar Chaubey, is a small farmer who, according to family members, had taken significant financial risks to support his daughter’s education. Apart from cultivating a small piece of land, he worked as a cook in Nagpur to meet household expenses and coaching fees.
Relatives say the family had borrowed nearly Rs 3 lakh through a Kisan Credit Card loan and also took financial help from relatives to fund Akanksha’s preparation.
According to her uncle, Jagdish Prasad Chaturvedi, Akanksha had returned home after the examination full of confidence.
“She was extremely happy after the exam and told us she expected to score more than 650 marks,” he said. “But when reports about the paper leak started appearing, she went into deep shock. She stopped eating, stopped talking much and remained disturbed. We never imagined things would end this way.”
Family members claim that the controversy surrounding the examination deeply affected the young aspirant, who feared that her hard work and performance would lose value amid allegations of irregularities.
The tragedy has sparked emotional reactions in Mauganj and beyond, with many questioning the psychological impact that examination controversies can have on students who spend years preparing for highly competitive tests.
For Akanksha’s family, however, the debate is far more personal. In their modest village home, a room still carries the books, notes and dreams of a daughter who wanted to wear a white coat and serve as a doctor. Instead, her parents are left holding a final letter filled not with hope, but with apology.
