Panipat, Haryana: The wedding celebrations in Naultha village had barely ended when the atmosphere turned from joy to terror.

A six-year-old girl, Vidhi, had gone missing. Hours later, her family found her lifeless body inside a dimly lit storeroom — face down in a plastic tub filled with water, head submerged, tiny feet left hanging outside.

What initially appeared to be a tragic accident soon spiralled into one of Haryana’s most horrifying crime stories in recent memory.

By Wednesday, Panipat Police announced the arrest of 32-year-old Poonam, the child’s aunt. But what investigators unearthed next stunned even seasoned officers: Vidhi was not the first child Poonam had killed, she was the fourth.

A pattern hidden in plain sight

Panipat Superintendent of Police Bhupender Singh, who b

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