Haryana: ‘Psycho woman’ arrested for killing 4 kids in two years

Accused was targeting girls whom she thought had good looks, says Panipat SP; crimes came to light after her arrest for murdering a 6-year-old girl in Panipat’s Naultha village

A six-year-old girl, who was found dead in Naultha village of Panipat district on Monday, was in fact murdered by her aunt, a “psycho killer”, only because she looked beautiful, police said on Wednesday. After her arrest, the accused, identified as Poonam of Bhavad village in Sonepat, confessed that she had killed three more kids in the past two years but the crimes were never reported as the affected families mistook the crimes for accidental deaths, investigators further said.

The accused in police custody

She was presented before a court on Wednesday and sent to jail. Accused Poonam’s husband Naveen and deceased Vidhi’s father Sandeep are cousins, police said. Addressing mediapersons in his office, SP Bhupender Singh said the deceased’s grandfather had mentioned in his complaint that it was a wedding function at their place on November 30 and December 1. When all of the guests were out of the house on December 1, Poonam saw Vidhi climbing the stairs. “She followed her to the terrace and spoke to her before drowning the girl in a plastic tub filled with water outside a storeroom. After that, she bolted the door from outside and went downstairs,” the SP said.

“The case was assigned to the CIA-1 that uncovered the crime and arrested the psycho killer. Poonam married Naveen, a resident of Bhavad village in Sonipat, in 2019. During interrogation, she told cops that in January 2023, she drowned her sister-in-law’s nine-year-old daughter (Ishika) in a water tank at home in Bhavad village. Fearing that her family might suspect her for role in Ishika’s death, she killed her own three-year-old son (Shubham),” the SP said.

Poonam hailed from Sewah village in Panipat before her marriage to Naveen of Sonepat’s Bhavad village.