10 January,2024 01:21 PM IST | Bengaluru | mid-day online correspondent
Suchana with her son. Pic/X
The body of the 4-year-old boy, allegedly murdered by his mother, the Chief Executive Officer of a city-based startup, was brought to Bengaluru from Karnataka's Chaitradurga on Wednesday. According to a report in PTI, the child will be cremated later in the day at Rajaji Nagar in Bengaluru.
The child's father, Venkat Raman, a native of Kerala, went to Hiriyur in Chitradurga on Tuesday night after he arrived from Jakarta and took possession of his son's body after postmortem, the PTI report added.
The accused, Suchana Seth was arrested on Monday night while en route from Goa to Bengaluru. The boy's body was discovered in a bag that she was carrying. The Goa police ordered her arrest and she was later remand to six-day custody by Mapusa court.
The postmortem indicated that the toddler was smothered to death. Dr Kumar Naik, the administrative officer at Hiriyur Taluk Hospital, stated, "He was strangled to death, which we term smothering. Either a cloth or a pillow was utilised. The child died from strangulation."
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There were no signs of blood loss or struggle on the body, according to Naik.
Seth, the CEO of 'The Mindful AI Lab', is a seasoned AI ethics specialist and data scientist. Her profile mentions her experience with 'AI Ethics Advisory & Audits' and 'Responsible AI Strategy'. She has significant affiliations and patents in natural language processing.
Seth has a postgraduate degree from the University of Calcutta and has received research fellowships from the Raman Research Institute (RRI) and Harvard University's Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society.
The Goa police on Wednesday told media that the murder of the child was premeditated. According to the personnel's statement to PTI, the Goa police found empty bottles of cough syrup in the room where Seth allegedly killed her son, indicating she might have given a heavy dose of the medicine.
During the inspection of the service apartment room where the woman stayed, they found two empty bottles (one big and another small) of cough syrup, a senior official told PTI.
They further said, "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."
"It looks like a pre-planned murder," the official added.
The report citing police sources stated that the accused has denied involvement in the crime and claimed that her son was 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 police official was quoted as saying in the PTI report.