New Delhi: The Goa Police suspect Bengaluru-based AI start-up founder Suchana Seth of pre-planning the alleged murder of her four-year-old son, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the Goa Police, Seth’s estranged husband P.V. Venkat Raman visited their son last Sunday.
ThePrint also spoke to the driver, Ray John, who drove Seth from Goa to Bengaluru for almost 10 hours before she was arrested on Monday night.
John described how his suspicion arose and how he drove Seth to the nearest police station without giving her an inkling. When the police apprehended her, Seth was forced to open up a trolley bag in which the child’s body was found, he said.
Seth, 39, is accused of smothering her son to death in a Goa hotel’s service apartment, allegedly after a court allowed visitation rights to Raman.
The investigating team is said to have found Benadryl cough syrup bottles from the service apartment where Seth checked in with her son Saturday. She was arrested Monday while she was allegedly fleeing with the body of the child in a taxi.
“We have found two Benadryl bottles, and she said that she got one of them with her. We suspect this was all pre-planned,” one of the sources said.
Drove Seth for 10 hours
John, a local, has been driving around people for the last 12 years. Even before he received a call from the police, the driver felt something was amiss — the trolley bag was heavy and Seth wanted to sit in the taxi for 4 hours all through a traffic haul.
“I got a call at 11:30 pm from the hotel that there was an emergency and that there were two passengers. The bag was unusually heavy. I first thought it was liquor. When I asked her, she replied it’s stuff-related to work. I didn’t get much into it. After a couple of hours, we had to stop as there was massive traffic and a haul of four hours. She spoke to me only thrice. Once, she asked for water,” the 33-year-old told ThePrint over the phone.
“I told her that it’s a long haul and I can drop her to the airport, but she declined the offer. I found it weird since I was told it was an urgent drop. Around 10:30 am, I got a call from the police asking how many passengers were there. I passed her the call. She spoke and gave me the phone. She was calm throughout. After 20 mins, I got a call again with the police directing me to get her to the nearest police station. They told me about the blood stains. I was worried — if they haven’t found the body, what if she had cut the body and it’s in my car, or she dumped it in the hotel,” he recollected.
Meanwhile, John kept talking to the police and his co-driver in the cabin Konkani, as she didn’t know the language. His next hurdle was — all sign boards were in Kannada and GPS showed the next police station some 150 km away.
He then stopped at a dhaba at a place about 250 km from Bengaluru, and asked his co-driver to get off and informed Seth that he needed to use the washroom.
John said that he then spoke to a watchman, who directed him to the Chitradurga police station. Once apprehended, Seth had to open the trolley bag.
Estranged husband visited child last Sunday
The sources told ThePrint that Raman, who landed from Jakarta Tuesday night, also works in Bengaluru and had visited the child last Sunday.
“The husband will be questioned in a couple of days. He had met the child last Sunday,” the source said.
Seth had booked the hotel room from 6 to 10 January, the sources said, adding she messaged her estranged husband that he could come and meet the son on Sunday, a day before the alleged murder.
According to a government doctor, who conducted the autopsy, the victim was smothered to death either with a pillow or a cloth. There were no other signs of abuse.
Seth, according to the Goa Police, tried to inflict injuries on her wrist with a pair of scissors. She had remained “evasive” and told her interrogators that she found the boy dead after he went to sleep. Police suspect that she fed cough syrup to her son before she allegedly smothered him to death.
In August, Seth accused Raman of domestic abuse following which a restraining order was issued after she claimed that he was physically violent with her and the child. Raman has refuted these allegations. On 13 December, a family court granted him rights to visit and spend time with the boy every Sunday.
(Edited by Tony Rai)