Bengaluru Police seek AI chatbot records in triple murder investigation
Bengaluru Police have sought chat records from an AI company after the prime accused in a triple murder allegedly used an AI chatbot to plan the crime over six months. Investigators said the chatbot guided the accused through planning, execution and evidence disposal
Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Police have written to an AI tool company seeking details of chat history after the investigation into the recent triple murder case revealed that the prime accused used the assistance of an AI chatbot to execute the murders, which he had been planning for nearly six months, officials said on Tuesday.
The murders were reported on June 22 this year at an apartment in Seegehalli under the limits of K R Puram Police Station, where Somasundar (52), his wife Muthulaxmi (48), and their younger daughter Supriya (19) were found stabbed to death.
Days after the murders, the deceased couple’s elder daughter Shwetha (24) and her live-in partner Kenneth (25), who fled the spot after committing the crime, were arrested separately from Puducherry, where they had been taking shelter to evade arrest, police said.
The investigation revealed that the alleged motive behind the murders appeared to be financial disputes and strained family relations, with Shwetha harbouring grievances against her mother for being “controlling”, they said.
According to police, Shwetha had allegedly borrowed Rs 50 lakh from her mother, Muthulaxmi, for Kenneth to start a cloud kitchen business. The money was spent, and she feared how it would be repaid.
While Kenneth and Shwetha allegedly acted in tandem, the entire planning and execution of the murders were carried out by Kenneth, who consulted an AI chatbot at every stage, including seeking information on how to kill, dispose of bodies, removing bloodstains, and whether the furnace built by him for the planned cloud kitchen business here could be repurposed to incinerate the bodies, a senior police officer said.
During interrogation, Kenneth confessed to police that a trivial issue had triggered him to eliminate Shwetha’s family members. He also admitted that he depended heavily on the AI chatbot for guidance throughout the six months of planning the murders, the officer said, adding that it had acted as an accomplice in the crime.
Following the detailed interrogation, the officer said investigators have written to the parent AI company seeking digital evidence of Kenneth’s chat history with the AI tool to corroborate his version.
Meanwhile, psychological assessments conducted during the probe revealed that Kenneth suffered from severe social isolation. Police alleged that Shwetha financially supported Kenneth while he remained socially isolated from friends and family.
Police said Shwetha had earlier worked in the IT sector but lost her job after allegedly becoming increasingly influenced by Kenneth.
After the murders, the accused duo allegedly went to Shwetha’s house, from where they stole cash and silver ornaments before fleeing to Puducherry, they said.
Police said that after luring Muthulaxmi to their apartment on June 22, Kenneth stabbed her multiple times. Subsequently, when her husband and younger daughter arrived, they too were stabbed.
Somasundar somehow managed to reach the staircase despite suffering grievous injuries. He was noticed by neighbours, who alerted the police.
In his dying declaration, Somasundar told police that he had been stabbed by his daughter and her live-in partner and urged them to rescue his wife and younger daughter before he was taken to hospital, where he later died, they added.
