Haryana Police arrested a woman, Poonam, for killing four children
She confessed to drowning all four victims and staging each death as an accident
Her urge to kill was driven by obsessive jealousy toward “beautiful girls.”
A woman in Haryana was arrested on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, for allegedly murdering four children over a span of two years, including her own three-year-old son. Panipat Police said that the killings were driven by jealousy and carefully staged to look like accidents. The accused, Poonam, in her early thirties, was taken into custody after the suspicious death of her six-year-old niece, Vidhi, at a wedding in Naultha village on December 1, 2025. The child was discovered in a water-filled tub inside a storeroom that had been locked from the outside, immediately raising doubts about the nature of the incident.
According to Bhupender Singh, Panipat Superintendent of Police, Vidhi had travelled with her family from Bhawar village in Sonipat to attend the wedding. “The accused appears to be a psychopath. She believed no child in her family should be more beautiful than her,” police said. When Vidhi went missing late at night, relatives began searching the premises and eventually found her body face-down in the tub on the first floor. A complaint filed by the child’s grandfather, retired sub-inspector Pal Singh, triggered a detailed investigation. Forensic analysis, along with the locked room, made accidental drowning unlikely and shifted the focus to foul play.
During questioning, police noticed inconsistencies in Poonam’s statements. When confronted with the evidence, she confessed to killing Vidhi and admitted to three earlier murders. Investigators said that she drowned all of her victims: her sister-in-law’s nine-year-old daughter Ishika in January 2023; her own three-year-old son Shubham around the same time because she feared he would reveal what he had witnessed; and her cousin’s six-year-old daughter Jiya in Siwah village in August 2025. All three deaths had previously been treated as tragic accidents by the families, with no suspicion of wrongdoing.
Police say Poonam told them she was driven by obsessive jealousy and an irrational irritation toward “beautiful girls.” She allegedly believed that no child in her extended family should appear more attractive than herself. Investigators described her as psychologically disturbed and exhibiting traits of a high-functioning psychopath with no remorse. She holds an MA in Political Science.
In reconstructing Vidhi’s murder, police said Poonam followed the girl to the terrace during the wedding and asked her to fill a plastic tub with water outside a storeroom. Once she had the opportunity, she drowned the child and then locked the room from the outside before returning to the celebrations. She initially attempted to justify her wet clothes with false explanations, but her story soon unraveled.
Investigators noted that the earlier deaths went unquestioned because the circumstances appeared accidental. The children were found in plastic tubs, there were no signs of struggle, and families performed the last rites without seeking further inquiry. It was only after Vidhi’s death, and the suspicious condition of the locked storeroom, that police began to see a pattern.
Poonam has since been produced in court and remanded to police custody. Authorities are re-examining the previous cases and exploring whether there may be additional victims. Police officials have described the case as one of the most disturbing instances of serial child murders in recent years, made even more unsettling by the fact that all the victims were members of her own extended family. [Rh]
Suggested Reading: