The four-year old boy allegedly killed by his mother Suchana Seth, CEO of a Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup, was cremated in the Karnataka capital on Wednesday as it emerged in investigations by the Goa police that it may have been a pre-planned murder. Meanwhile, the accused has denied her involvement in the crime during the interrogation and claimed the child was already 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 senior police official said, reported PTI.
The Goa police have found two empty bottles of a cough syrup in a room where the accused allegedly killed the boy, indicating she might have given a heavy dose of the medicine to him and that it was pre-planned murder, an official said.
The post-mortem has revealed the child was smothered to death either with a cloth or a pillow, according to officials.
Seth, who was reportedly upset with the ongoing divorce proceedings with her husband, allegedly killed her son in the apartment at Candolim in Goa and stuffed the body in a bag before taking it to neighbouring Karnataka in a taxi, police said.
Seth, who was on her way to Bengaluru, was arrested from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Monday night on the instructions of Goa police and brought to Goa on Tuesday.
A senior police officer told PTI that during the inspection of the service apartment room where the woman stayed, they found two empty bottles (one big and another small) of a cough syrup.
"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," he said.
"We are examining the possibility of the woman giving a heavy dose of cough syrup to the child before putting him to death," the official said.
Enquiries with the service apartment staff revealed the woman had asked them to buy a small bottle of a cough syrup claiming she was having a cough, he said, adding the bigger bottle might have been carried by her.
"It looks like a pre-planned murder," the official said.
Seth checked into the service apartment on January 6 and stayed there till January 8 before leaving for Bengaluru in a taxi.
Following her arrest, a court in Mapusa town of Goa on Tuesday remanded her in police custody for six days.
With inputs from PTI
