Bengaluru CEO child's murderappears pre-planned, say police

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The four-year old child who was allegedly killed by way of strangulation by his mother in Goa, was cremated by his father in Bengaluru's Harishchandra Ghat on Wednesday.

A teary-eyed Venkat Raman, the estranged husband of the 39-year-old accused Suchana Seth, performed the last rites at Rajajinagar here.

The body was brought to Bengaluru on Wednesday morning after post-mortem in Chitradurga and the initial rites were performed at an apartment here.

Raman, who hails from Kerala and settled in Indonesia reached Hiriyur in Chitradurga on Tuesday night and took possession of the body of his son after post mortem.

He had spoken to his son on a video call from Indonesia on January 7, just before the boy was murdered at a service apartment in Goa.

Seth, the chief executive officer (CEO) of an artificial intelligence start-up, was apprehended on Monday night while she was on her way from Goa to Bengaluru, and her son's body was found in a suitcase.

She was arrested on the directions of the Goa Police. Seth, hailing from West Bengal, is the CEO of 'The Mindful Lab,' and according to her LinkedIn profile, she is an AI ethics expert and data scientist with over 12 years of experience in mentoring data science teams, and scaling machine learning solutions at startups and industry research labs.

A postgraduate from the University of Calcutta, and a research fellow from Raman Research Institute (RRI), Seth spent two years at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

She is on the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics List. She has been a Mozilla Fellow at Data & Society, a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard University, and a research fellow at the Raman Research Institute.

A failed relationship

According to a police official, Raman and Seth got married in 2010 and their son was born in 2019. Their divorce proceedings started in 2022.

It is learnt that Suchana and Venkat Raman were in the middle of divorce proceedings, and Suchana had filed a domestic violence case against Raman, who had denied the allegations in court.

However, the family court in Bengaluru had issued a restraining order against the husband and the couple were amidst a custody battle for their son.

While new information related to the case is emerging by the hour, details surrounding the horrific incident remain sketchy.

Several questions still remain unanswered, from why Seth took the trip to Goa to the motive behind a mother's devastating act against her own child.

What was in the court order?

It was also revealed that Seth had earlier sought Rs 2.5 lakh per month in alimony, alleging annual earnings of over Rs 1 crore by her husband.

The court documents illustrate that Seth submitted copies of WhatsApp messages, pictures, and medical records to support her claims of domestic abuse against her husband, Raman.

In response, he denied the charges, leading to the issuance of a restraining order against him, preventing any contact with Seth and their child.

Despite the restraining order, Raman was granted weekly visitation rights, allowing him to see the child every Sunday.

This arrangement reportedly upset Seth, and investigators are exploring whether this court order played a role in the tragic incident that unfolded in Goa.

A reflection on psychological dimensions of a shocking incident

In a tragic incident that sent shockwaves through the city, a 39-year-old CEO of a startup company allegedly took the life of her four-year-old son in Goa, embarking on a journey to Karnataka with the child's body concealed in a bag.

Suchana Seth was apprehended by the Goa police in Chitradurga, Karnataka, on Monday night, raising questions about the psychological aspects of such a distressing case.

Seeking insights into the matter, News Trail discussed this incident with Dr Divya Shree K R, a Consultant in Psychiatry at Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru.

Dr Divya Shree emphasised the mounting pressures on women in contemporary society, juggling multifaceted responsibilities such as managing careers, households, and children.

The strain from these obligations can potentially push individuals to a breaking point, leading to unforeseen and tragic outcomes.

However, in the case at hand, Dr Divya Shree noted a disturbing level of premeditation in the accused's actions, suggesting a wellthought-out plan.

The strained dynamics within the accused's marriage further complicated the situation.

Dr Divya Shree expressed her belief that signs of depression or distress might have been displayed, by Sucha