School principal found dead in car, heart attack suspected

A 46-year-old principal of a municipal corporation school was found dead in his car in outer Delhi’s Shahbad Dairy on Wednesday. 

After initial medical examination, doctors opined that he may have suffered a heart attack due to excessive alcohol consumption, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Raj Singh, who was the principal of a primary school run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation in north-west Delhi's Swaroop Nagar.

According to police, locals saw Raj on the driver’s seat of his Maruti Alto car at 6.15 am. “They tried to wake him up, but did not respond,” a police officer said.

The locals then informed police, after which Raj was taken to Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital. He was declared brought dead. “There were no external injury marks on the body. Doctors said he suffered 25-30 per cent heart blockage, which may have caused his death,” the officer added.

Crime and forensic teams inspected the car and a found a liquor bottle. As part of the initial probe, police have not ruled out that Raj consumed alcohol with a friend in the car. 

However, Raj did not appear to have been robbed and nothing from the car seemed to have been stolen. Suffocation has also been ruled out as the car’s door was found open by locals.

Raj’s family members told police that he had left home on Tuesday afternoon. He had told them that he was going to school, but did not return home on Tuesday. 

“Raj did not contact family members after leaving home and his phone was also unreachable,” the officer said. His family claims he was not a heart patient.

A team of Shahbad Dairy police station is probing the death, but no case has been filed. Further investigation will depend on the post-mortem report.