A woman from Haryana named Poonam has been arrested for the gruesome murders of four children, including her own son. Police say she had been harming children for years, and her first attempt to kill was in 2021, when she targeted her two-year-old niece, Vidhi.

In 2021, Poonam allegedly poured boiling tea on little Vidhi’s face. The girl survived, and her father tried to believe it was an accident. But police now say this was Poonam’s first deliberate attempt to hurt her.

Sadly, Vidhi did not survive the second attack. On Monday, during a family gathering for a wedding, Poonam allegedly took Vidhi to a storeroom, convinced her to stand in a tub of water, and then forced her head underwater. Vidhi died, and her body was later discovered by her grandmother.

Police say that over the last four years, Poonam killed three other children. Most of her victims were young girls, and officers believe she had a “beauty complex”,  meaning she was jealous of girls she thought were prettier than her. This may have been her motive in the murders of three of the girls.

One of the victims was her own four-year-old son, Shubham, who died in 2023. Police think she killed him to divert suspicion, so people would not think she only targeted girls. The first known victim was Ishika, a nine-year-old girl, killed in 2023. The third victim after that was Jia, an eight-year-old girl. Then came Vidhi, the youngest. After she was caught this week, police say Poonam confessed to all four murders.

Vidhi’s father, Sandeep, told NDTV he had always been suspicious of Poonam but other family members dismissed his concerns. Now heartbroken, he has demanded the death penalty, saying she should never be allowed to harm another child. He fears his own son might have been the next victim if Poonam had not been caught. The investigation into the earlier murders is ongoing, and police are still gathering full details.