On Monday night, the CEO Suchana Seth of an AI business based in Bengaluru, who is 39 years old, was taken into custody for the alleged murder of her four-year-old kid at a Goan service flat. According to the police, Suchana Seth, the accused, was apprehended in the Chitradurga region of Karnataka while attempting to escape in a taxi with her son’s body put inside a bag.
The accused woman stated during her initial interrogation that she had a “estranged relationship” with her husband, however the authorities do not yet know the precise reason for the murder. According to them, the mother and her son arrived to a posh flat in Candolim, North Goa, on Saturday, and they left early on Monday.
According to an officer, the incident was reported on Monday after a housekeeping staff member discovered bloodstains while cleaning the unit. A squad from the Calangute police station hurried to the scene after the hotel management called the Goa police.
“After watching CCTV footage, it was discovered that the accused had left the hotel with a bag in tow and had not brought her son. The woman had requested that the receptionist set up a taxi to drive her to Bengaluru, according to hotel workers over the course of the investigation. The accused persisted on taking a taxi despite the hotel staff’s advice to take a flight instead since it would be more affordable, the investigator stated.
The accused was asked about her son over the phone by the Goa Police when they called the cab driver. Without telling her, they requested that the driver take Seth to the police station in Aimangala.
“She stated over the phone that her kid was in Fatorda, Goa, with a friend. The police requested that the driver take the cab to the closest Karnataka police station since they thought her responses were evasive and suspicious. Karnataka police detained her after discovering the boy’s body tucked in her suitcase at the Chitradurga police station, according to a police officer.
Seth, a data scientist, is the creator and CEO of the digital consulting firm “The Mindful AI Lab,” according to the police. Seth is an expert in artificial intelligence ethics with twelve years of expertise in data science and the startup sector, according to her LinkedIn page. Her profile also states that she was a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, and that she was included in the list of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.
Who is Suchana Seth?
Suchana Seth was named one of the top “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021” and serves as the CEO of the start-up Mindful AI Lab, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“Suchana is an expert in AI ethics and data science, with over 12 years of experience mentoring data science teams and scaling machine learning solutions at startups and industry research labs,” reads her LinkedIn description.
According to the report, Suchana Seth has held research fellowships at the Raman Research Institute, the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard University, and Mozilla Fellow at Data & Society.
Her patents in natural language processing are also held by her.
The woman is from West Bengal and has been residing in Bengaluru, according to Superintendent of Police (North) Nidhin Valsan; her spouse, Venkat Raman, is from Kerala.
According to Valsan, the incident has been reported to the spouse, who is currently in Indonesia, and they are estranged.
About Case
On January 6, Suchana Seth and her boy moved into a rented service flat in Candolim, North Goa. This was confirmed by Inspector Paresh Naik of the Calangute police station (PTI).
Following a few days of living there, Seth told the flat staff that she had to go to Bengaluru for work and asked them to set up a taxi, Naik said.
The employees told her that taking a flight to Bengaluru would be cheaper than hiring a taxi, which the officer said was the only choice.
The woman insisted that she would journey by taxi only, and a vehicle was arranged on January 8 on which she left for Bengaluru early morning.
Afterward, when the flat staff cleaned the room she stayed in, they saw blood on a towel, he said. The management of the apartment instantly informed the Calangute Police.
The staff also told the police that Seth’s four-year-old son wasn’t with her when she left the flat, and she was carrying a bag that seemed a lot heavier than normal, he said.
The cops then called her and asked her about the blood stains and her “missing” son.
The woman answered that the blood stains were due to her monthly periods. She added that her son was with her friend in Margao town in South Goa and gave the address.
Naik said that the police got help right away from the Fatorda Police (near Margao) and found out that the address she gave them was fake.
Later, the inspector called the cab driver, who was on his way to Bengaluru and had already arrived in Chitradurga district. He told the driver to take the suspect to the closest police station.
The cops in Chitradurga checked the woman’s bag in which they found the body of the child, Naik added.
Then, a team of police from Calangute went to Chitradurga and got Seth a transit remand. He was then brought to Goa.
Naik also said that the police told the accused’s husband, Venkat Raman, who is in Jakarta at the moment, about what happened.
