Police investigate at Mathura Lodge in Patna. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 20: The lady principal of the nursery section of a school at Rajiv Nagar was murdered by criminals who broke into the building and looted valuables shortly after noon today.

Neelam Sharma (48) was the principal of the nursery section of the CBSE-affiliated Ankur Public School owned by her husband Sanjay Kumar.

The school, which has classes till 10+2 level, is located at Nirala Nagar area in Digha. However, the nursery section operates out of a two-storied building, Mathura Lodge, on Road No 3 of Rajiv Nagar.

The building was also the family’s residence. The couple have two children, daughter Neha, a student of Class 12 at Notre Dame Academy, and son Priyaranjan, an engineering student who lives outside Bihar.

Sanjay Kumar said his wife usually stayed in the house. “We were in the middle of shifting the entire school. Only the nursery section was stationed there and it would have been shifted to Digha shortly. I would be busy in the school in Digha almost all day. Jewellery worth lakhs of rupees has been looted,” he said.

Around 12.45pm, two employees of the school discovered Neelam tied to a bed in one of the rooms on the ground floor.

The two employees put Neelam, who was still breathing faintly, in a jeep and first took her to Sahyog Hospital in Patliputra. But the 1-km journey took about half-an-hour owing to the heavy traffic. There, she was referred to Tara Hospital near Gandhi Maidan, 5km away. Neelam died in the ICU of Tara Hospital.

Vinod Kumar, a driver employed by the school, said he had come to Mathura Lodge along with cashier Kirti Kumar around noon to park his bus.

“It took us a while to park the vehicle and then we knocked on one of the rooms on the ground floor to hand over the keys to madam (Neelam). We knocked repeatedly but she didn’t answer. We called on her mobile phone but there was no response. Suddenly, we noticed that the door had been bolted from outside. We opened the door and were shocked to find madam on the ground and her hands and legs were tied to the bed. The cupboard of the room was wide open and all things in it were scattered. Blood was coming out of her mouth. We untied madam and found that she was breathing faintly. We somehow got her up and put her in a jeep belonging to the school. But shed died in the ICU of Tara Hospital,” Vinod Kumar told The Telegraph.

The brazen daylight murder has shaken up the city’s police force which is grappling with a surge in incidents of crime.

Patna city SP Jayant Kant said: “Investigations are on. There will be a breakthrough soon.”