Panipat: A chilling pattern of murders spanning two years has emerged in Haryana’s Panipat after police arrested a 32-year-old woman who confessed to killing four children — including her own three-year-old son — driven, investigators say, by a deep hatred for “beautiful girls.”
Police on Wednesday revealed that the accused, Poonam, had been under suspicion after the body of a six-year-old girl — her niece — was found inside a locked storeroom during a family wedding in Sewah village. The child had gone missing during the function, triggering panic among relatives. Hours later, her body was discovered in a tub of water, and CCTV footage from the venue placed Poonam near the area shortly before the girl vanished.
During intense interrogation, police said, Poonam broke down and admitted not just to the latest killing, but to three previous murders — a revelation that stunned investigators. According to police, she told them she “hated beautiful girls” and felt “jealous” of children she believed looked better than her own.
Officers said her confession linked her to the 2023 death of a nine-year-old girl, her sister-in-law’s daughter, who was found drowned in a water tank at her home in Bhavar village in Sonipat. At the time, the incident was written off as an accident. In a disturbing twist, she also admitted to drowning her three-year-old son soon after that murder, allegedly to divert suspicion by making it appear both children had died tragically.
The murders continued. In August 2025, Poonam allegedly targeted yet another child — a six-year-old relative from her cousin’s family — killing her in a similar manner by drowning her in a water tank in Sewah village. That case too had been treated as an accident.
Police officials said it was the locked storeroom at the wedding that finally “exposed the entire chain,” leading them to reconsider all previous child deaths in the family. “She showed no remorse. Her jealousy towards children she considered beautiful appears to have been a motive,” a senior investigator said, describing her behaviour as “psychopathic.”
Family members, shattered by the revelations, expressed disbelief at the possibility that someone so closely involved in their lives could have carried out such acts without raising suspicion for so long. The community has been left shaken, with police now reviewing all unexplained child deaths linked to the extended family over the past few years.
Poonam has been taken into custody, and police said a detailed psychological evaluation will be conducted as the investigation widens.
