She had returned to the hostel after attending classes and eaten her lunch minutes before the incident occurred, around 2.30 pm, the police said. The police have not found any suicide note and are still unclear whether Pushpanjali Raj committed suicide or it was an accident.

The victim, from Jharkhand, had come to the Capital and taken admission just two months ago. Police officials said Pushpanjali was last seen around 2.30 pm — headed towards the bathroom on the hostel building’s fifth floor. School principal Shyama Chona said the girl bolted the bathroom door from inside: “There is a common bathroom on the fifth floor; she broke the mesh from the bathroom window and jumped to her death.”

Hostel warden Raj Bala found the body at 2.30 pm after students raised an alarm, a senior officer said. “She was rushed to Holy Family Hospital in Vasant Vihar but doctors there declared her dead when brought in,” the officer said.

Warden Raj Bala said Pushpanjali was a Science stream student: “Since she did not have Engineering as one of her subjects, she had come back to the hostel when Engineering lectures were going on. She had her lunch at 2.15 pm and went up to her room — number 504.”

Police officials said her head hit a stone when she fell in the garden outside. Severe head injuries probably caused death, they said.

The teenager’s local guardian Durgesh Pandey, a geo-scientist based in Rohini, rubbished the suicide theory. “I knew Pushpanjali very well — she could not take such a step,” Pandey said. “She must have fallen accidentally, or somebody might have pushed her down.

“She had no reason to take such a step (suicide) — she was very good in studies and never showed any signs of depression.”

Though good in studies, police officials said Pushpanjali did not appear to have made many friends. The police have not ruled out peer pressure as a reason for the tragedy.

Her elder brother Purusottam Raj, an MTech student, had recently met her at the hostel, the police said. Shilpi, a friend of Purusottam, said the young girl had told her brother that there was stiff competition in the school.

She lived in room number 504 of the girl’s hostel along with five others. There are 199 other students in the hostel.