The Bengaluru woman accused of murdering her four-year-old son in a hotel room in Goa – reportedly over a bitter custody battle with her husband – has kept her emotions in check and shows no remorse, either over the death of her child or her role in it, police sources told NDTV.
However, Suchana Seth has not explained why she attempted suicide. When she was arrested, the police found slash marks on her wrist and believe she tried to kill herself after killing her son.
Police said the 39-year-old CEO confessed to an estranged relationship with her husband P.R. Venkat Raman, whom she accused of violence in August. Mr Raman was handed a restraining order.
He denied the charges but was barred from his wife’s home or communicating with her or the child. He was, though, handed visitation rights.
Police believe this upset Suchana enough to plan the murder.
The police found empty cough syrup bottles in her hotel room in Goa’s Candolim and believe she gave the child a heavy dose, making him drowsy, and then smothered him with a pillow.
In an earlier interrogation, Suchana, in police custody till next week, said she had no idea how her son died, insisting he was alive when she went for a nap and dead when she woke up. A senior police officer dismissed the explanation, telling news agency PTI: “We don’t buy her theory.”
The post-mortem indicated the boy was smothered.
Suchana checked into a service apartment at the Sol Banyan Grande on Friday with her son, and checked out two days later without him but with a large brown bag. She also demanded a taxi to drive her to Bengaluru, a distance of nearly 600km.
Alarm bells rang after staff cleaning her room post check-out found blood stains. Cops were called in, and they directed the taxi driver to report to a police station in Karnataka’s Chitradurga. Police there found the boy’s body in the bag, and she was arrested on Monday.
The father, who travels regularly to Indonesia on work, rushed home from Jakarta to take possession of his son’s body after the post-mortem. The body was taken to Bengaluru and has been buried.
Indo-Asian News Service
