Bengaluru start-up CEO ‘kills’ son, travels with body: What we know so far

In an incident that has left many shocked, Suchana Seth, a 39-year-old chief executive officer (CEO) of a start-up company, was caught on Monday (January 8) for allegedly killing her four-year-old son in Goa, stuffing his body in a bag, and leaving by taxi for neighbouring Karnataka.

Here is what we know about the case and accused Suchana Seth so far:

Who is accused Suchana Seth?

According to Seth’s LinkedIn page, she is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of start-up Mindful AI Lab and was among the top “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021”.

After founding the company, which focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), Seth has been leading it for over four years since 2020.

Before that, Seth worked as an affiliate and a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University for two years, working on “ethics and governance of Artificial Intelligence and responsible machine learning”.

Seth also worked as a senior data scientist at Boomerang Commerce in Bengaluru and as a senior analytics consultant at Data Sciences Group, Innovation Labs, also in Bengaluru.

Seth holds a first-class master’s degree in physics, specialising in Plasma Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Calcutta and a post-graduate diploma in Sanskrit from the Ramakrishna Mission Institute Of Culture.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Physics with first-class honours from Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata.

What happened?

Seth checked into a luxury service apartment at Candolim in North Goa on January 6 along with her son, Calangute police station inspector Paresh Naik told new agency PTI.

After staying there for two days, she informed the apartment staff that she wanted to go to Bengaluru for some work and asked them to arrange for a taxi, he said.

“The staff suggested that she could take a flight to Bengaluru which would be a cheaper option rather than hiring a taxi which is an expensive proposition,” he said.

Seth insisted that she would travel by taxi only, and accordingly a vehicle was arranged on January 8 in which she left early morning.

Later, when the apartment staff went to clean the room in which she stayed, they found blood stains on a towel, Naik said. “The management of the apartment immediately informed the Calangute police, who then reached the spot," he said.

The staff also informed that the woman’s four-year-old son was not seen with her when she left the apartment and she was also carrying an unusually heavy bag, he said. The police then called the accused and inquired with her about the blood stains and her “missing” son.

“The accused told us that the blood stains were due to her monthly periods. She also told us that her son was with her friend in Margao town (in South Goa) and provided the address,” the official said.

Naik said he immediately took the help of Fatorda police (near Margao) and got to know the address given by her was fake.

The inspector later spoke over phone to the taxi driver, who was on way to Bengaluru and had reached Chitradurga district in Karnataka, to take the accused to the nearest police station.

The police in Chitradurga checked Seth’s bag in which they found the body of the child, Naik said.

What was the motive?

Goa Police arrested Seth from Chitradurga, but the motive behind the murder is not yet known.

However, according to police, Seth’s “estranged relationship” with her husband Venkat Raman may be a possible motive, say reports. Apparently, their divorce proceedings are in the final stage and she is unhappy over a court order.

The post-mortem of the body would be conducted in Chitradurga, Naik said.

Police have informed Venkat Raman, who is currently in Jakarta, about the incident.

Seth has been brought to Goa on a transit remand.

(With agency inputs)