10 months on, no answers in NEET-PG topper’s death

Ten months after National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-PG 2017 all India rank one holder Navdeep Singh died by suicide in Delhi, there is still no clarity on what led to his death.

Neither the cops, nor Singh's college, nor Delhi Medical Council which regulates medical practice in the national capital, have offered any answers. And now, the Delhi Medical Council (DMC), which had formed a fact-finding panel to probe the incident and factors leading to it, says it has no record of the committee’s report.

Navdeep, 25, a second-year MD Radiology student at Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and a native of Muktsar in Punjab, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his rented room at the Parsi Anjuman guest house on September 15, 2024.

The suicide was the second such case at MAMC that month, prompting the DMC to take suo motu cognisance and constitute a six-member panel chaired by its president Dr Arun Gupta. The committee was tasked with examining factors contributing to student stress, including academic pressure, working conditions and the availability of mental health support in Delhi’s medical institutions.

Viscera report awaited, say police

The Delhi Police, which had registered a case in Navdeep Singh’s demise, on Wednesday said investigations were ongoing. “We are waiting for the viscera report. The father of the deceased has also filed an application regarding the release of electronic devices, smartphone and laptop, of Navdeep. These are pending with the SDM. Once these requests are approved, we will hand over the smartphone and laptop of the deceased to his family,” said the investigating officer at the IP Estate police station.

“It is noted with concern that the incidences of suicide by medical students and doctors are increasing... the fact-finding committee is constituted to look into the matter,” the DMC had stated in its order.

But a Right to Information (RTI) response dated April 25, 2025, now reveals that the council has no record of the committee’s findings. “...based on the records available in the office of the Delhi Medical Council, it is informed that no report of the Fact-Finding Committee is available in the records of the Delhi Medical Council,” the DMC said in response to an RTI filed by Aman Kaushik, an MBBS graduate, on March 29.

“It’s deeply concerning that even after all this time, the committee’s findings have not been made public,” Kaushik told The Tribune. “Resident doctors are made to work in inhuman conditions — 36-hour shifts without rest are not uncommon. This relentless pressure severely impacts their mental and physical health,” he added.

When contacted, then DMC Secretary Dr Girish Tyagi said the Dean of MAMC and the Director of the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) were asked to take the investigation forward. “Since they were already asked to do this work, we didn’t meet again,” he said.

Repeated attempts to reach IHBAS Director Dr Rajinder Dhamija by phone and email went unanswered.

On June 19, Delhi Health Minister Pankaj Singh officially dissolved the DMC, following Lt Governor VK Saxena’s approval to disband the statutory body under Section 29 of the Delhi Medical Council Act, 1997, citing alleged irregularities. A new council is to be constituted within two months.