Start-up CEO kills her son in Goa, travels with body to Karnataka; arrested

The Goa police arrested the accused, Suchana Seth, from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Sunday night, he said, adding the motive behind the killing was not yet known.

Panaji: A 39-year-old chief executive officer of a start-up company allegedly killed her four-year-old son in Goa and then travelled with the body to neighbouring Karnataka, a police official said on Tuesday.

The Goa police arrested the accused, Suchana Seth, from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Sunday night, he said, adding the motive behind the killing was not yet known. 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’.

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She checked into a rented service apartment at Candolim in North Goa on January 6 along with her son, Calangute police station inspector Paresh Naik said. 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. The accused 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 enquired 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 the woman’s bag in which they found the body of the child, Naik said. A team of the Calangute police then rushed to Chitradurga and obtained a transit remand of the accused, who was being brought to Goa.

The postmortem of the body would be conducted in Chitradurga, Naik said. Police have informed about the incident to the accused’s husband, Venkat Raman, who is currently in Jakarta, he said.