Four Students Go Missing from Rajasthan's Coaching Hub Kota in a Week; One Traced

Sources said that four students preparing for competitive examinations in the coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan, have gone missing in the last seven days. While one of the students has been traced, the other three remain untraceable with the family of one of the students threatening to stage a protest outside the District Collectorate.

Kota: In an alarming development, as many as four competitive examination aspirants have gone missing from coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan in the last seven days leaving the parents as well as the police officials perplexed. While one of the students has been traced, search for the other three is going on. Sources said that Piyush Kapasiya Gurjar (17) hailing from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh has been missing since Feb 13.

Piyush's father Mahesh Kapasia said that Piyush, who was staying in Jawahar Nagar police station area of Kota city, last talked to his mother on the 13th of Feb. The family have not been able to contact Piyush as his phone is switched off, he said. Significantly, the results of the JEE Main examination were declared the same day in which Piyush scored only 13 percentile, his father Mahesh Kapasia informed.

Sources said that Piyush was last seen at Kota Junction of the railway station. In the CCTV footage, he is seen leaving his two bags and walking out of the station. Piyush had come to Kota two years ago to prepare for the JEE engineering competitive examination, his father said. He said that the police have registered a missing case but have not been able to trace him yet.

This is the fourth such case reported from Kota in the last seven days where a student has gone missing. On February 11, Rachit Sondhiya, resident of Mahavir Nagar I, Kota, also went missing and is being searched in Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve and Chambal River. His father, who is not satisfied with the police search, demanded an intensive operation in the forest area to trace his son.

The family also staged a protest outside the District Collectorate on Sunday in this regard. The student's father Jai Narayan Sondhia said that if the search for Rachit is not intensified, he will block the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border in protest. Rachit is originally a resident of Beawar in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh.

Besides Piyush and Rachit, two more students went missing from Kota. On Feb 17, Yuvraj Kumawat was reported missing from the Anantpura area. He was later traced by the police. Another student Aryan Singh, resident of Bihar, is also missing from Kota.