A 15-year-old girl studying in a private school in Barasat died apparently after falling from the fourth-floor terrace of her hostel on Thursday night.

Police said Sneha Chakraborty, a Class IX student of Aditya Academy, died around 15 minutes after being taken to a private hospital nearby, run by the same group as the school.

Sneha, a Tollygunge resident, lost her mother around two years ago. Family members accused the school management of negligence but principal Apala Chakraborty denied the charge.

“Sneha was a good student. She was mentally upset. We took good care of her,” she said.

Aditya Academy sources said the girl had returned to her hostel from the school — both are in the same compound — around 2.30pm. “The two girls with whom she shared her room told us that there was nothing unusual in her behaviour,” said a source.

Moidul Islam, a school employee who lives in a room next to the hostel, heard a loud thud around 9pm. “I rushed to the spot and found a girl lying on the ground. She was frothing at the mouth,” he recalled. Islam alerted others, who took the girl to Aditya Medical Park where she died.

The four-storeyed hostel has no balcony and all the windows have grilles, prompting the police to suspect that the girl had fallen from the terrace.

Sheha’s father Pinaki, an inspector of Calcutta police, was too shocked to speak. His brother Madhusudan said: “Why was the terrace door kept unlocked at night? The girl died because of the authorities’ negligence.” The additional superintendent of North 24-Parganas police, S.M.H. Mirza, said an unnatural death case had been lodged.