In early December, police in India investigated the drowning of a young girl. The 6-year-old was found with her head submerged in a water basin by her grandmother while the rest of the family was out celebrating a wedding. It was discovered that the girl’s aunt, a woman only identified by the name Poonam, was the one who coldly murdered her. The woman’s reason for committing such a cruel act? She was jealous that the little girl was considered beautiful.
Now, it has come out that this wasn’t the first time the woman killed a young girl she believed was more beautiful than she was. And she reportedly even killed her own son to cover her tracks.
After Poonam confessed to killing her niece, she also revealed that she had killed three other children, including her son, NDTV reported. In 2023, she drowned her sister-in-law’s 9-year-old daughter in a water tank. Fearing her in-laws would suspect she had killed the girl, she also drowned her 3-year-old son. In August 2025, she also killed her cousin’s 6-year-old daughter.
पानीपत में 6 साल की बच्ची विधि की हत्या की ब्लाइंड वारदात का महज 36 घंटे में पर्दाफास,आरोपी साइको किलर महिला गिरफ्तार
— Panipat Police (@PANIPAT_POLICE) December 3, 2025
खुलासा;
इससे पहले अपने बेटे सहित 3बच्चों को पानी में डुबोकर मार डाला
परिजन हर बार इसे इत्तेफाकिया हादसा मानते रहे
"सुंदर बच्चियों से चिढ़ होती थी"@opsinghips pic.twitter.com/Z6tSkM1vNC
Panipat Superintendent of Police Bhupender Singh called the woman a “psychopath,” The Hindu reported. When she was asked why she committed the killings, Singh said “jo sundar bachhiye hain unse inko nafrat si hai (She harboured hate for beautiful girls).” She allegedly told police that as soon as she sees a beautiful little girl, she’d fear the girl would be more beautiful than her when she grew up.
“After her marriage, she indulged in such things. She appears to be a psycho type. She is not very educated,” Singh said.
When each of the previous children was found dead, the family believed their deaths to be accidental. After learning the killings were intentional, they refused to accept that Poonam could be a cold-blooded killer.
“My daughter showed no signs of illness before marriage and was considered normal,” her mother Sunita said, as reported by the Times of India. “I wish I had known about her condition earlier, but she always behaved normally when she visited us.”
The father of one of the murdered girls suspected an occult aspect in the killings. Authorities, however, reject this theory.
NDTV reported that hours before the first killing in 2023, she recorded the girl, Ishika, jumping and dancing to a song. She could be heard cheering them on in the background. Charges and sentencing information for Poonam have yet to be released.
