Startup CEO smothered son, tried to slit own wrist: Cops | India News

PANAJI: Bengaluru-based data scientist and startup founder Suchana Seth slashed her wrist in a failed suicide attempt after smothering to death her four-year-old son with a pillow inside their hotel room in Goa’s Candolim, police said on Tuesday after it emerged that the strain of marital separation and then a battle for custody of the child might have driven her over the edge.
The bloodstain that a member of the hotel’s housekeeping staff found while cleaning the room after Suchana checked out on Monday morning was the result of the 39-year-old trying to end her life, investigators said. The speck of blood not only caused Suchana to panic but also put police on her trail as she tried to flee to Karnataka by taxi, carrying her son’s body in a bag.

The postmortem in a Karnataka hospital revealed that the child died as a result of smothering.
“There are no strangulation marks on the neck,” said Dr Kumar Naik, who conducted the autopsy. “But swelling in nasal veins was noticed, largely due to congestion caused by smothering. She may have used a pillow, cloth or some other material to smother the kid. However, there was no sign of struggle or wounds on the body. Based on rigor mortis, we feel death may have occurred over 36 hours ago.”
Police suspect Suchana, who is estranged from her husband Venkat Raman, planned to kill her son and then take her life as she wasn’t happy about being legally bound to take the child to visit his father every Sunday.
Seth claimed she didn’t intend to kill son, but he died suddenly: Official
Detained at Aimangala police station in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district, Suchana was arrested and brought to Goa on transit remand on Tuesday. On reaching Goa, she was produced in a Mapusa court, which remanded her in police custody for six days. Venkat, who was in Indonesia at the time of the alleged murder, was spotted alongside a lawyer at Hiriyur Government Hospital in Chitradurga, where the autopsy was done. He declined to speak to reporters.
In Goa, Suchana refused to speak without her lawyer when the first-class judicial magistrate asked her if she wanted to say anything. Goa police later interrogated her for nearly two hours at Calangute police station. She claimed to have landed in Goa last Saturday to avoid taking her son to meet his father the next day.
“The accused claimed she didn’t intend to kill her son, and that she loved him, but he died suddenly. She then got scared and sat near the body. She also told us that she got a cut on her hand,” an official said.
North Goa SP Nidhin Valsan said the initial investigation revealed that Suchana, whose roots are in West Bengal, married Kerala native Venkat Raman in 2010. Their son was born nine years later. The couple separated in 2020, and divorce proceedings are in the final stage, sources said. SP Valsan said police had contacted other family members to visit Goa and have their statements recorded.
“After talking to Suchana, prima facie it has come to light that there was some court order she was unhappy about. We are checking the court order.”
Investigators will recreate the crime scene to ascertain how the child died, he said. Chitradurga SP Dharmendra Kumar Meena said the boy’s body was in a suitcase placed in the boot of the taxi that was taking Suchana to Bengaluru. Goa police quoted the taxi driver as saying that Suchana was calm and quiet during the journey, and that he didn’t suspect anything until an officer called and directed him to drive to a nearby police station without arousing the passenger’s suspicion.
(With inputs from Niranjan Kaggere in Bengaluru)