Patna: Police on Wednesday afternoon arrested a senior Hindi teacher at Bankipore Girls' High School in Gandhi Maidan and her fashion designing-trained daughter while they were planning to steal jewellery from Ratnalaya Jewellers in Hathwa Market.

The two come from an upper middle class family. Sulekha Devi taught Hindi at the school in Gandhi Maidan while her daughter Pooja Kumari claims to have done a course in fashion designing from a Mumbai-based institute.

Sources said Sulekha and Pooja were habitual offenders, often targeting jewellery stores. On Tuesday evening, they turned up at a shop on Dakbungalow roundabout posing as prospective buyers of expensive blue sapphire gemstones, popularly known as Neelam. CCTV cameras at Hira Panna Jewellers recorded their activities.

"The police were looking for a woman and her daughter for stealing blue sapphire gemstones from Hira Panna Jewellers," Kotwali police station house officer (SHO) Rama Shankar Singh said. "The CCTV footage clearly shows the woman picking up gemstone and hiding it in her bun."

Kotwali police had circulated pictures of the two women to nearby police stations and also to some jewellers. Around that time, Kotwali police got to know that two women whose identities matched with the that in the CCTV footage had entered Ratnalaya Jewellers.

The Kotwali police sprung into action and arrested Sulekha and her daughter Pooja while they were planning to steal jewellery from the store. The police also recovered the stolen Neelam gemstone from their possession.

"We have arrested the duo and sent them to jail," Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said. " But they will be taken on police remand to find out about their involvement in other thefts."

The principal and teachers at Bankipore Girls' High School were shocked to learn that their senior colleague was involved in such crimes. "It is shocking and shameful for the entire school," school principal Vijaya Kumari said.

"Sulekha was in school till 4pm on Wednesday. She was prayer in-charge at the school. On Thursday morning, when she didn't reach the school in the morning we thought something was fishy as a police team had entered the school premises, which houses the teachers' residential quarters of teachers, on Wednesday night."

"Sulekha is a senior Hindi teacher and her salary might be around Rs 60,000 a month," a school teacher said on condition of anonymity.

"That apart she used to get pension as her husband, Tarkeshwar Tiwari, who was in the police department, had passed away few years back."

Even her daughter used to earn as a fashion designer. Schoolteachers are also surprised by her activity given that she comes from a respectable family. Her father was a senior education department official while her sister is a senior teacher at Gardanibagh Girls' High School.