Subscribe
Two 16-year-old boys studying in class 10 were held by the Telangana police in the murder case of their school principal, Roopa Reddy, in Nalgonda district. Roopa, principal of the Nagarjuna Grammar Concept School, was found stabbed to death in her house in Kondamallepally on August 11.
Over a week of investigation later, Nalgonda Superintendent of Police (SP) Sharat Chandra Pawar announced on Wednesday, August 19 that two students of the school were allegedly involved in the murder.
Around the time of her death on the evening of August 11, Roopa was talking to her aunt and said the word ‘babu’ just before the phone was switched off, the police found during interrogations. The SP said that while they were looking at family members and persons with crime records as suspects, they also wondered whom she might have addressed as ‘babu’ and speculated if it could be one of her students.
When the school reopened on August 17 after a break for mourning, the police looked for any students who missed classes or behaved in a suspicious way, the SP said. Out of 13 students who skipped school, the police zeroed in on the two Juveniles in Conflict with Law (JCL) who were found suddenly spending a lot of money and having parties with their friends, according to the SP.
He said that Rs 1.54 lakh cash and an iPhone was found on one of the students, JCL 1, who initially said he got it from his parents. “But there were blood stains on the cash which lab reports have confirmed to be human blood,” SP Sharat Chandra Pawar said.
On interrogation, they found that around 15 to 20 days before the murder, Roopa had reprimanded the student, JCL 1, for having cash and a phone in his bag in the school hostel. He was asked to leave the hostel and move back to his house, where his parents too scolded him, the police said.
Bearing a grudge, the student planned to steal money from Roopa’s house along with a classmate, JCL 2, according to the police, who said that the two of them bought gloves, masks, and a knife, and conducted a recce to avoid CCTV cameras.
On August 11, knowing that the school fees would be collected on that day, JCL 1 jumped the compound wall of Roopa’s house after school, entered the house and allegedly stole some cash, the SP said. While he was trying to escape, Roopa noticed him and called him ‘babu’ while speaking on the phone.
Afraid that she would identify him and take action, the student allegedly stabbed her 27 times and left the house with the cash and her phone. The only CCTV footage police found showed a person in a red hoodie jumping the compound wall to enter and exit the house around the time of the murder, according to the police.
