The Telangana police have arrested two students in connection with the murder of their school principal in the state’s Nalgonda district. The principal was found stabbed to death at her residence on August 11.

The police zeroed in on the 16-year-old students after sifting through a pool of 80 people, including history-sheeters. It was a word uttered by the deceased over the phone that shifted the focus to her school, Nalgonda Superintendent of Police Sharat Chandra Pawar said at a press conference held on Wednesday.

The teacher, who was on the phone with her aunt, had uttered the word “babu”, commonly used to refer to boys and young men in Telangana. Soon after the conversation, her phone was switched off. “We realised that she used to call the students of her school ‘babu’. The investigation then took a detour to the school and its students,” Pawar said.

After examining several witnesses, the police narrowed down on two boys who were “leading a lavish life”. They were hostellers and had a run-in with the teacher, who had scolded them in front of their parents for having “bad habits and a spending problem”. The two then plotted her murder because they resented the rebuke and thought the principal would have “a huge stash of cash in her home”.

A day before the murder, one of the juveniles went home and brought a red hoodie. “They went on to buy knives, masks and gloves,” the SP said. The two broke into the school principal’s house, which they were familiar with because of its proximity to the school. “The juveniles had also visited the surrounding areas of the residence for one week before the murder, making their offence premeditated.”

After they broke into the house, one of them kept an eye out for outsiders, while the other entered from the rear door. “Investigation has revealed that they entered the house through an open kitchen door and launched a brutal knife attack on the victim,” a police statement read. Subsequently, they robbed Rs 2.5 lakh in cash from the bedroom. “They jumped over the rear side wall of the house and fled through a deserted area,” the police said.

The juveniles discarded the knife, gloves, masks and a cell phone in the bushes, police said. “They also discarded the hoodie and changed into fresh clothes,” the police said. The police have recovered Rs 1.54 lakh in cash, the deceased’s iPhone and two other cell phones from the accused students.

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The teacher, 50, was married and had a son who is pursuing B.Tech. Her husband goes to work four days a week in Hyderabad. The incident happened when he was away at work.

“She was known to be close to her students as a friend and guide. This is an unfortunate incident where one of the students held a grudge against her and convinced his friend to commit murder,” the SP said.