Suchana Taken to Goa Hotel to Re-create Crime Scene, B'luru CEO Hid Son's Body 'Under Toys' | Updates

Days after Suchana Seth, the CEO of a start-up in Bengaluru, was arrested for allegedly killing her four-year-old child, cops have recovered a handwritten “cryptic note” alluding she did not want the custody of her son to go to her husband.

It is also learnt that Seth (39) had told her friends and family members that her son, who resembled her estranged husband, always reminded her of their troubled relationship, according to a report by India Today.

However, she was unhappy with a court order allowing him to meet their son every Sunday.

Seth, a native of Bengal, married Kerala resident Venkat Raman PR in 2010. The couple was settled in Bangalore and had a son in 2019. Differences later cropped up in their marriage and the two separated. Their divorce proceedings were currently underway.

“Cryptic note” Found From Crime Scene

A forensic team during an inspection at Aimangala police station found a handwritten note on a piece of crumpled tissue paper in Seth’s belongings. The note was purportedly written by Suchana.

The note was written on tissue paper using an eyeliner. It was crumpled and an attempt had been made to tear bits of it.

Police have taken samples of Suchana’s handwriting and sent it to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), along with the note, for examination by experts.

Officials said the note could prove to be a crucial piece of evidence as it could help ascertain the accused’s state of mind and motivations.

“We would not like to disclose the content of the note but it indicates that she was upset over the custody of her child, he said. The note was not found in the bag where she had stuffed her son’s body after killing him,” a senior police officer said.

According to another report by India Today, the note read, “The custody of my son should remain with me no matter what, even if the court grants us divorce, I want the custody of my son.”

Seth ‘Not Cooperating’ With Cops

As per sources, Suchana Seth is not cooperating with the cops investigating her son’s murder.

The Goa police wanted to take Suchana Seth to a service apartment, where she had stayed to recreate the crime scene,

However, the recreation of the crime scene has been delayed as Seth has not agreed to go to the hotel yet.

The “recreation of crime scene” is required as a part of the investigation into the case, an official said.

“This is part of the investigation. She is currently in police custody and we are interrogating her in connection with the case,” he said.

Suchana Seth Hid Son’s Body Under Toys, Clothes

During the search of her luggage by Chitradurga police, Suchana Seth initially tried to hide her son’s body under a layer of toys and clothes, according to a report by India Today TV.

The bag carried toys and clothes on the top. But officials asked Suchana to show the entire bag. As one of the cops removed the layer of clothes, the boy’s body was found, the report said.

When questioned about the body, Seth told police that it was her son’s corpse.

She reportedly did not say anything more.

Seth A ‘Loving Mother’

‘Whatwillhappen’ is one of the hashtags on startup CEO Suchana Seth’s last Instagram post on October 12, written as a caption beneath the photo of a child in front of an aquarium.

The post is now flooded with comments and, according to some, the child is likely Seth’s son while she has not mentioned it in the caption. Two Instagram users have claimed that they were the woman’s neighbours for some time and found her to be a “loving mother” and extremely concerned over her child’s health issues as he had breathing trouble.

Murder Appears Pre-planned

Two empty bottles of cough syrup were found in a Goa apartment, where a start-up CEO allegedly killed her minor son, indicating she may have given a heavy dose of the medicine to him in signs of premeditated murder as she was subjected to a psychological test to assess her mental state and help find the motive for the gruesome crime.

The post-mortem has revealed the four-year-old child was smothered to death either with a piece of cloth or a pillow.

“The post-mortem conducted on the body has indicated the possibility that the child might have been smothered to death and there were no signs of struggle. We are examining the possibility if the woman gave a heavy dose of cough syrup to the child before putting him to death,” the official said.

Enquiries with the service apartment staff revealed the woman had asked them to buy a small bottle of cough syrup for herself, he said, adding the bigger bottle might have been carried by her.

“It looks like a pre-planned murder,” the official said.

The accused also tried to commit suicide by slashing her left wrist, the police said earlier.

The police took Seth, booked for murder and destruction of evidence, to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour near Panaji and got a psychological medical examination conducted on her.

“We are waiting for the report. The check-up was a part of the regular protocol that is followed after the arrest of an accused,” the official said.

Seth Denies Killing Her Son

According to police sources, the accused has denied her involvement in the crime during the interrogation and claimed the child was already dead when she got up from sleep.

“We don’t buy her theory. Further investigation will reveal the motive behind killing the child. As of now, we know that she and her husband were estranged because of which she might have done this,” a senior police official said.

How Seth Was Caught

After the court order, Seth’s husband Venkat Raman called asking to meet their son and told her to bring the child to his house in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Seth reportedly turned down his request and insisted they meet in a public place in the city, to which Venkat Raman agreed.

He went to the agreed-upon place and waited for Suchana for over two hours to show up. He even called her several times, but she allegedly did not respond to his messages and emails, the India Today report said.

Subsequently, Raman travelled to Indonesia for work.

On January 6, Suchana Seth checked into a service apartment named ‘Sol Banyan Grande’ in North Goa’s Candolim with her son.

She stayed there till January 8. She allegedly killed her son in the apartment and stuffed the body in a bag before taking it to neighbouring Karnataka in a taxi on Monday. She was arrested from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Monday night and brought to Goa on Tuesday.

Seth, who has told interrogators about her troubled marriage, is in police custody for six days, but officials were yet to find the motive behind the murder.

Seth is the CEO of ‘The Mindful AI Lab’, and according to her LinkedIn profile, she is an AI ethics expert and data scientist with over 12 years of experience in mentoring data science teams, and scaling machine learning solutions at start-ups and industry research labs.

Was Calm, Did Not Say a Word Says Cab Driver

Ray John, the taxi driver who helped the police nab Seth, said she was calm and did not utter a single word during the entire trip that lasted more than 10 hours.

John said the service apartment staff booked his taxi for Seth. When I reached the service apartment, she (Seth) asked me to carry her bag from the reception to the taxi. It was heavy, the taxi driver said. I asked her whether we could remove some belongings from the bag to make it lighter. But she refused. We had to drag the bag to the boot of the car, he said.

The driver said that the only time she spoke was when she asked him to get a bottle of water when they reached Bicholim town in North Goa.

The taxi driver said he later received a call from the Goa police, alerting him that there was something suspicious about his passenger. “The Calangute police told me to search for a nearby police station and take her there. I tried searching on Google Maps and GPS but didn’t find any. I even looked for cops at toll plazas but there were none,” he said.

Alarmed by the call from the police, the taxi driver said he bought some more time under the pretext of stopping by a roadside restaurant. There he learnt that a police station was just 500 metres away. “We were one and a half hours away from Bengaluru. I drove to the Aiyamangala police station (in Chitradurga district of Karnataka), while a Calangute police official remained on line with me on the phone,” he said.

John said it took almost 15 minutes before the inspector concerned came out. But madam was calm and was sitting in the car, he said.

The police searched her bag and found the child’s body in it, said John. “When police asked her whether it was her son. She calmly said yes’, he added.

Police Takes Seth to Hotel to Recreate Crime Scene

Calangute Police team takes Suchana Seth, Bengaluru CEO accused of killing her four-year-old son, to the service apartment to “recreate the scene of the crime.”

(with PTI inputs)