Very limited public information is available about Sanjeev Kumar’s life before the murders. He was the husband of Sonia, daughter of Haryana MLA Relu Ram Poonia. The couple’s marriage was marked by familial tensions, particularly around inheritance and property. Sonia was embroiled in a dispute over agricultural land, approximately 46 acres, surrounding her family’s farmhouse in Litani, Hisar district. These conflicts particularly with Sonia’s half-brother Sunil were known to be volatile.

In the months leading up to the murders, Sonia had reportedly threatened Sunil with a revolver. Sanjeev Kumar’s involvement, though less publicly documented before the crime, became legally and criminally central following the events of August 2001. After the killings, both Sonia and Sanjeev were arrested and tried. His family members were also charged, though later acquitted.

On the night of August 23, 2001, a brutal mass murder took place at the farmhouse residence of Relu Ram Poonia, a Member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly, in Litani village, Hisar district, India. Eight members of the Poonia family were killed while they slept. The victims included Relu Ram himself, his second wife Krishna, their daughters Priyanka (also called “Pammi”) and Sonia, his son from a previous marriage, Sunil, Sunil’s wife Shakuntala, and their three young children—Lokesh (4), Shivani (2), and Preeti (3 months).

The investigation revealed that Sonia Poonia, along with her husband Sanjeev Kumar, orchestrated and carried out the murders over a longstanding dispute concerning family property. The conflict centered on approximately 46 acres of farmland surrounding the family home. It was determined that opium had been mixed into the kheer (rice pudding) served at dinner that evening, sedating most of the victims. Early the next morning, Shakuntala was found gagged and with her hands tied, suggesting she may have been the only one who resisted. The other victims appeared to have been bludgeoned with a heavy metal rod while unconscious or asleep.

Evidence collected by the police included testimony from servants who stated they had seen Sonia retrieve an iron rod from the garage shortly after midnight. Later, at approximately 4:45 a.m., she was seen driving away in a Tata Sumo vehicle, returning a few minutes later. This brief absence led investigators to believe she had dropped off her husband Sanjeev from the crime scene. When the bodies were discovered, Sonia was found unconscious in the house, having ingested insecticide in what appeared to be a failed suicide attempt. She was rushed to a hospital in Barwala for treatment. A suicide note allegedly written by her was recovered, in which she stated that she had killed her father because he did not love her.

Police later concluded that the murders were not spontaneous but premeditated. The night of the incident, Sonia had brought her younger sister Priyanka home from her school hostel under the pretense of celebrating her birthday. Firecrackers had been set off at midnight to mark the occasion. The next morning, a servant who arrived to take young Lokesh to his school bus discovered the scene and raised the alarm. Forensic analysis, eyewitness accounts, and circumstantial evidence led to the arrests of Sonia and Sanjeev Kumar.

In May 2004, the District and Sessions Court in Hisar convicted Sonia and Sanjeev of the murders and sentenced them to death. The court concluded that the killings had been carried out due to Sonia’s resentment over inheritance matters and disputes with her half-brother Sunil. Eight of Sanjeev Kumar’s relatives, who had also been charged, were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The case was largely based on circumstantial evidence and included testimonies from 66 witnesses.

The legal proceedings continued for years. In 2005, the Punjab and Haryana High Court reduced the death sentences to life imprisonment. However, in 2007, the Supreme Court of India reversed that decision and reinstated the death penalty, citing the heinous nature of the crimes. After the Governor of Haryana denied clemency, Sonia and Sanjeev submitted a mercy petition to the President of India under Article 72(1) of the Constitution. In 2009, Sonia wrote to then-President Pratibha Patil asking for her plea to be rejected and for her execution to proceed, claiming that life in solitary confinement had become unbearable.

In 2013, the mercy petition was formally rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee. But in 2014, following a petition by the civil rights group People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences of Sonia and Sanjeev to life imprisonment, citing the prolonged delay in processing the mercy plea as grounds for clemency. The ruling was part of a broader decision that commuted the death sentences of thirteen other convicts for similar reasons.

By 2024, Sonia was released on bail from Karnal jail after completing procedural formalities, and Sanjeev Kumar was also reported to have been released. Although both remain convicted of the mass murder, their release is pending further judicial review and does not constitute an acquittal. The case remains one of the most high-profile family murder cases in Indian legal history, illustrating the intersection of political power, property disputes, and criminal justice in the country.