Bengaluru CEO fed high dosage of cough syrup to 4-year-old son before smothering him to death, say police

IANS

Bengaluru, January 11

Investigation has revealed that the accused CEO mother from Bengaluru gave a high dosage of cough syrup to her four-year-old son before strangling her to death in a Goa service apartment, police sources said on Thursday.

The Goa Police have recovered two empty bottles of a cough syrup from the room where accused Suchana Seth, CEO of a Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence start-up company, stayed for two nights and committed the crime.

After making the baby gulp down higher dosage of syrup, the accused had smothered him with a pillow. There is no trace of the child struggling before death and it is because the boy was in a state of dizziness, police sources said.

When the cops had enquired about the cough syrup bottles with the hotel staff, they had said that Suchana had claimed that she had cough and got the syrup bottles, police said.

The police are waiting for the post-mortem report. The doctors had confirmed that the death of the child had taken place due to suffocation. The accused was taken to the Goa Medical College and Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour for medical evaluation.

The police have also issued notice to her former husband Venkataramana to appear before the Goa Police for questioning. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant reacting to the development had stated that instructions were given to the police to dwell deep into the case.

The investigation into the murder has taken a twist with the police suspecting that the accused, 39-year-old Suchana Seth, was planning the crime for long and had cooked up the story of attempt to suicide.

Sources said Suchana had put up a post on social media by putting the picture of her son and giving the hashtag "what will happen to him?". Police sources said the post was written on October 10, 2023 and the development had aroused suspicion on pre-planning of the murder by the accused mother.

Sources said Venkataramana, the father, after getting entitled to visitation rights had arrived from Jakarta in Indonesia to Bengaluru to meet his son on Sunday. He had brought toys and new clothes for the child.

But Suchana had taken the kid to Goa on Saturday. Venkataramana made several phone calls and video calls to her but they remained unanswered.

Suchana had claimed that she tried to render her son unconscious to stop him from talking to his father over video call by pressing the pillow on his face and the child was suffocated to death.

Seth had claimed that later she tried to slash her hands, but failed. Not about to figure out what to do in the situation, she stuffed the body into a suitcase and checked out of the hotel.

The investigation has shown that the deceased boy had spoken to his father over video call on Sunday. Seth had confessed that she did not want her son to talk to his father at all.

The preliminary investigation has revealed that she committed the crime to deny her ex-husband access to the child after a court granted him visitation rights.