India, March 6 -- In recent years, India's coaching hub Kota has been infamous as a hotbed of suicides by students thrust to the edge by severe pressures to make a mark in competitive examinations. Now, the crushing pressure that has driven dozens of young students to suicide has ostensibly led to a brutal murder hundreds of kilometres away.

A 20-year-old, who returned home after dropping out from a Kota institute last August, bludgeoned his parents with an iron rod earlier this week, killing his mother and severely injuring his father, police said on Wednesday.

The man, Satyam Katre, attacked his mother Pratibha and father Kishore, ostensibly after the latter stopped him from using his mobile phone on Monday evening, said police office...