New Delhi: Bengaluru-based AI expert and start-up founder Suchana Seth, accused of smothering her four-year-old son to death, remains “evasive” during her questioning, ThePrint has learnt.
“She has denied killing her son and has been evasive to the questioning. She has been repeating that the boy died in his sleep,” a source in the Goa Police said.
Seth, the source said, had inflicted injuries on her wrist with a scissor after she allegedly killed her son.
According to the Goa Police, the investigating team is now probing the sequence of events and if Seth had administered cough syrup to her son before killing him.
“We have found two empty bottles of cough syrup. We are investigating if she had fed cough syrup to the child. It could be because she didn’t want him to make any noise, or just wanted to kill him in his sleep,” the source said.
Both the bottles were found empty from the room which she had booked, the source added.
According to the complaint filed by the manager of the hotel, around 4 pm on Sunday, Seth had “ordered the two Benadryl bottles” from the reception.
Dr Kumar Naik, who conducted the autopsy of the child, had Tuesday said that the victim was killed more than 36 hours earlier. The victim was either smothered or strangulated, he said, adding that there were no signs of struggle.
Seth is suspected to have used a cloth or a pillow to smother the child.
According to the Goa Police, the suspect was arrested after the hotel staff of the service apartment she was lodged at alerted the police about the “missing child” and blood spots on the floor and the towel from the room she had stayed with her son.
Seth, the police said, booked the room and checked in on Saturday. On Monday, she allegedly told the hotel staff to arrange a taxi for her to travel to Bengaluru despite being informed that flights were cheaper.
The Goa Police had arrested Seth after questioning her. Preliminary findings suggested that she was “triggered” by a recent family court order that gave her husband rights to visit every Sunday to spend time with their son. “She didn’t want her husband to meet the son and so she took the trip to Goa. Whether she had planned the crime or not is still a matter of investigation,” the first source said.
Seth had reportedly filed a domestic abuse case against her husband last August accusing him of violence against her and their child. The husband, P.V. Venkat Raman, denied the allegations in court.
A restraining order was later issued in this regard and Raman was barred from entering Seth’s home or communicating with her in any form. Three weeks before she travelled to Goa with her son, a family court had granted her estranged husband visitation rights every Sunday.
It is also learnt that Seth claimed an alimony of Rs 2.5 lakh per month stating that Raman’s monthly income was Rs 1 crore.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Tony Rai)