Psycho-killer aunt, ‘jealous of pretty girls’, nabbed in Panipat

With the arrest of a woman, the Panipat police claimed to have solved a blind murder case involving a six-year-old girl at Naultha village in the district. The child’s body was found from a water tub in a storeroom on the first floor of a house in the village.

During the investigation, it emerged that she had already killed three other children, including her own son. The accused is the aunt (chachi) of the deceased.

SP Bhupender Singh said the woman, identified as Poonam (32) of Bhawar village in Sonepat, was a psycho-killer as she harboured hatred towards attractive children, especially girls, and drowned them so their deaths would appear natural.

The six-year-old girl was identified as Vidhi of Bhawar village. Her family had come to attend a relative’s wedding at Naultha village on December 1. When Vidhi went missing under suspicious circumstances, the villagers launched a search. They later found her body in a water tub in the storeroom of a house and informed the police.

DSP (Crime Against Women) Naveen Sandhu, along with SHO Israna and forensic expert Dr Neelam Arya, reached the spot. Evidence was collected and the Israna police registered a case of murder against an unknown person.

The SP said the CIA-1 team, led by Inspector Phool Singh, got clues and nabbed Poonam. During interrogation, she confessed to murdering Vidhi by drowning her in the tub, he added.

It was revealed that Poonam, originally from Sewah village, married Navin of Bhawar village in 2019. She admitted to killing two children in 2023 -- nine-year-old Ishika and her own three-year-old son Shubham -- by drowning them in a water tank at her house. She killed her son to avoid suspicion for Ishika’s murder, who was the daughter of her sister-in-law, the SP said.

She further confessed to murdering six-year-old Jia, daughter of her cousin, at Sewah village in August 2025. The families cremated the children, assuming accidental deaths. Poonam admitted she felt jealous of beautiful girls and derived satisfaction from killing them.

The police have registered a separate case for Jia’s murder. The woman was produced in a local court, which sent her to judicial custody.