Two Class 10 students have been arrested in connection with the murder of their school principal, Kallu Rupa Reddy, in Telangana’s Nalgonda district.
Police, according to reports, allege that the teenagers targeted the principal’s home for money and stabbed her 27 times after she caught them during the robbery.
Investigators say the students’ extravagant spending habits and a crucial clue from the victim’s final phone call helped crack the case.
According to reports, the teenagers had developed expensive habits despite having limited means. They were allegedly spending heavily, consuming alcohol and had travelled to Goa about a month before the murder.
The principal had previously raised concerns about their conduct. Police said she had found cash and mobile phones hidden in their hostel bags and had confronted them in front of their parents over their alleged bad habits and spending. The students were subsequently removed from the hostel and made day scholars.
Investigators believe the teenagers later suspected that the principal kept a large amount of cash at her residence, allegedly from school-fee collections. Police said they planned to rob the house to fund their lifestyle.
A key breakthrough reportedly came from the principal’s final phone conversation with her aunt. As the attackers entered her house, she was heard saying the word “babu” before the call abruptly ended. Police reportedly knew that the principal commonly used the term when addressing male students.
This clue led investigators to focus more closely on students connected to the school, eventually bringing the two teenagers under suspicion.
Police later recovered about Rs 1.54 lakh in allegedly stolen cash, described in reports as blood-stained, along with the principal’s iPhone, from the suspects’ possession.
The two minors have been arrested and the case is being handled under the juvenile justice system. Their legal proceedings will take place before the appropriate Juvenile Justice Board.