A 32-year-old woman identified as Poonam has been arrested in Panipat, Haryana, for drowning her six-year-old niece during a family wedding celebration on Monday. Police investigations revealed that the accused deliberately lured the child, Vidhi, to a rooftop storeroom in Naultha village and forced her head into a plastic water tub until she died. The murder occurred while the wedding procession was in full swing below, allowing Poonam to rejoin the gathering undetected.
According to senior police officials, Poonam confessed that her sole motive was pathological jealousy: she could not bear any young girl in the family appearing more beautiful than herself. During sustained interrogation following Vidhi’s death, she admitted to three previous identical killings that had been dismissed as tragic accidents over the past two years.
The earlier victims include her own three-year-old son Shubham in 2023, whom she drowned immediately after killing her nine-year-old niece Ishika to deflect suspicion from herself. In August 2025, she murdered another six-year-old relative, Jia, in Siwah village using the same method. All four children were drowned in household water containers, with the crimes carefully staged to appear accidental.
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Authorities state that Poonam systematically targeted pretty young girls at family functions, gaining their trust before isolating them. The deaths only came to light when Vidhi’s grandmother discovered the bolted storeroom and found the child’s body still partially upright in the tub. Medical examination confirmed death by drowning, prompting the filing of murder charges.
Poonam, currently in judicial custody, has been charged with multiple counts of murder under the Indian Penal Code. Police are preparing a detailed chargesheet while the affected families grapple with the revelation that celebrations repeatedly masked calculated acts of familial violence driven by vanity and envy.
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