It began like any other village wedding — blaring band music, relatives rushing about, children running up and down the stairs. But somewhere amid the lights, laughter and baraat chaos in Naultha village, a predator moved silently.
A woman in a bright salwar suit, blending easily into the crowd, watched a six-year-old girl skip past her — and felt the familiar, dangerous pull.
Within hours, little Vidhi would be found face down in a plastic tub, the “accident” that would finally unmask one of Haryana’s most chilling child-killing sprees — a woman who police say targeted children she believed were “more attractive than hers”, murdering four of them, including her own son.
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Haryana woman held for killing 4 childrenThe Killing MethodPolice in Haryana’s Panipat, probing Vidhi’s death, say Poonam (34) confessed to killing not just the six-year-old girl at the wedding but three others over two years — all drowned in plastic tubs or water tanks, all written off by their families as tragic accidents.
In her statement, officers said, Poonam admitted she was driven by an urge to harm children she thought were “better looking than her own”, and killed her 3-year-old son because she feared he had seen her commit one of the murders.
Poonam, a farmer’s wife from Bhavar village in Sonipat and mother of a four-year-old boy, was arrested on Tuesday. Police said she lured Vidhi into filling a tub with water, asked her to carry it into a storeroom, drowned her, locked the door from outside and then calmly returned to the wedding festivities.
Panipat SP Bhupendra Singh said the control room received a call on December 1 reporting that a six-year-old girl had been found drowned inside a house in Naultha, about 15km from Panipat.
A police team found Vidhi lying face down in a plastic tub in a first-floor storeroom, her head submerged. The scene seemed suspicious from the start. A forensic team examined the room, and a board of doctors at Civil Hospital later suspected homicide.
The cases- 1st case Sister-in-law’s 9-year-old daughter Ishika found drowned in Jan 2023
- 2nd case: Her 3-year-old son Shubham died later in 2023
- 3rd case: Cousin’s 6-yr-old kid found drowned in Aug 2025
- 4th case: 6-yr-old Vidhi found dead in a water tub on Dec 1. Poonam was her aunt
The chilling weddingBased on a complaint by Vidhi’s grandfather, Pal Singh, a case was registered against unknown persons at Israna police station. Vidhi had travelled from Bhavar with her family for the wedding.
Late Monday night, amid the bustle of the baraat setting off, Pal received a call that the child was missing. His wife, Ompati, and Vidhi’s mother, Rakhi, searched the house and nearby streets.
Around 2am, when Ompati climbed to the first floor, she noticed the storeroom door locked from outside. When she opened it, Vidhi lay motionless, face down in a tub full of water. The child’s father rushed her to Israna Medical College, where she was declared dead.
Police began questioning everyone present at the wedding. Officers noticed inconsistencies in Poonam’s account and grew suspicious. During sustained interrogation, she broke down and confessed — not just to Vidhi’s murder, but to three earlier killings using the same method.
Married in 2019, Poonam killed her firstborn, Shubham, in 2023 when he was three, police said.
According to her statement, she first killed her sister-in-law’s nine-year-old daughter, Ishika, in January 2023 by drowning her in a water tank at their Bhavar home. Fearing that Shubham might reveal what he saw, she drowned him next. Both deaths were accepted as accidents by the family.
Then, in August this year, she murdered her cousin’s six-year-old daughter, Jiya, at her maternal home in Siwah village — again by drowning her in a tub. No one connected the pattern until Vidhi’s death forced investigators to look deeper.
Police said Poonam confessed that on Monday night, when most guests had stepped out with the wedding procession, she saw Vidhi climbing the stairs and followed her. She asked the child to bring a tub of water to the storeroom. When Vidhi did, Poonam drowned her, locked the door from outside, and returned to the celebrations as if nothing had happened.