Estranged husband of woman, who killed their 4-yr-old son in Goa, returns to India from Jakarta

PTI, Jan 9, 2024, 8:48 PM IST

The father of the four-year-old boy who was killed by his mother in Goa, returned to India from Jakarta on Tuesday evening on learning about his child’s murder, police said.

The man, Venkat Raman, arrived at Chitradurga in Karnataka, and gave his consent to the local authorities to conduct a post-mortem on his son’s body, they said.

The child was allegedly smothered to death by his mother, Suchana Seth, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of an Artificial Intelligence start-up. The incident took place in a service apartment at Candolim in North Goa between January 6 and 8, police said.

The woman had checked into the service apartment with her son on January 6. After staying there for two days, she left for Bengaluru in a taxi on January 8 morning. When the apartment staff went to clean the room in which she stayed, they found blood stains on a towel. The staff immediately informed the police and told them that she carried an unusually heavy bag, and her was not seen with her, officials said.

The police in Goa contacted their counterparts in Chitradurga, who checked the woman’s bag in which they found the body of the child. She was arrested there and later brought to Goa, where a court remanded her in police custody for six days, they said.

According to Goa police, Seth told them that she and her husband were estranged and their divorce proceedings were currently underway.

A senior police official said, ”Raman, who was in Jakarta (Indonesia), was contacted by the police and told about the incident. After that, he returned to India. On his arrival in Chitradurga in the evening, he gave his consent for a post-mortem on his child’s body.”

According to police, as per the initial investigations the woman smothered her son to death before trying to commit suicide by slashing her wrist.