A chilling video has emerged showing Poonam, the 32-year-old Haryana woman arrested for allegedly drowning four children over two years, cheerfully recording her four-year-old son, Shubham, and nine-year-old niece, Ishika, dancing on a bed just hours before she killed them both in 2023. In the footage recovered by police, Poonam can be heard encouraging the children as they jump to music, unaware that she would later drown Ishika in a water tank in Sonipat’s Bhawar village and then kill her own son in the same manner to deflect suspicion.

Poonam, dubbed the “killer mom” by local media, was arrested this week after allegedly drowning her six-year-old niece, Vidhi, in a tub during a family wedding gathering in Panipat on Monday. Police say she confessed to all four murders—Ishika (2023), Shubham (2023), eight-year-old Jia, and Vidhi—and attempted to kill Vidhi in 2021 by pouring boiling tea on her face, which the child miraculously survived.

Investigators believe Poonam was driven by a pathological “beauty complex” and deep jealousy, deliberately targeting young girls she perceived as prettier than herself. “She did not want any girl to look more beautiful than her,” a senior officer told reporters, adding that she killed her own son only to create a cover story after Ishika’s death raised suspicion within the family.

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Vidhi’s father, Sandeep, demanded capital punishment, telling NDTV, “Poonam had a beauty complex and killed my daughter out of jealousy. She should get the death penalty. We don’t know how many more children would have died if she hadn’t been caught.” He expressed fear that his surviving son could have been next.

The case has sent shockwaves through Haryana, with police now examining whether additional incidents may be linked to Poonam. A detailed psychological evaluation has been ordered as the investigation continues into one of the state’s most disturbing serial child murder cases in recent years.

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