PANAJI/BELAGAVI: Suchana Seth, the CEO of a Bengaluru-based AI startup, who allegedly smothered her four-year-old son Chinmay to death in a Goa hotel, made him drink a cough syrup before committing the crime, according to Goa police.
Two bottles of cough syrup have been recovered from the hotel room where Seth stayed. She had one bottle of cough syrup in her bag when she checked in and had asked the hotel staff to get another bottle, claiming that she had a sore throat, police sources said.
During questioning, the hotel staff confirmed that she had asked them to get a bottle of cough syrup, they said. The sources said Seth, however, continued to maintain that she did not kill her son and claimed he died in sleep. She told the investigating officers that she would speak to them only after meeting her lawyer. The sources said Seth is under the care of a psychiatrist, purportedly to study her mental condition. She is likely to undergo some tests soon.
Seth visited Goa with her son several times after her relationship with her husband Venkat Raman strained, the sources said, stating that a family court in Bengaluru was scheduled to pronounce its verdict on the child’s custody on January 10. The divorce case was filed in 2020. The court had granted visiting rights to Venkat Raman every Sunday, but Seth was not happy with this.
Boy laid to rest in B’luru
4-year-old Chinmay was laid to rest at Harishchandra Ghat in Rajajinagar on Wednesday morning. The last rites were performed by the boy’s father Venkat Raman. After the autopsy in Chitradurga, the body was shifted to the house of Raman’s parents.