A 39-year-old chief executive officer of a start-up company allegedly killed her four-year-old son in Goa and then travelled with his body by stuffing it in a bag, to neighbouring Karnataka in a taxi, police said on Tuesday.
The Goa police arrested the accused, Suchana Seth, from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Monday night. She was brought to Goa on Tuesday and remanded in police custody for six days by a court in Mapusa town, an official said.
According to police, the motive behind the killing is yet to be known.
The woman had checked into a rented service apartment at Candolim in North Goa with her son on January 6 and after staying there for two days, she went to Bengaluru in a taxi on Monday. The staff of the apartment later informed the police that her son was not seen with her when she left the place, the police said.
According to Seth's LinkedIn page, she is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of start-up Mindful AI Lab and was among the top '100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021'.
"She checked into a rented service apartment at Candolim in North Goa on January 6 along with her son," Calangute police station inspector Paresh Naik said.
After staying there for two days, she informed the apartment staff that she wanted to go to Bengaluru for some work and asked them to arrange for a taxi, he said.
"The staff suggested that she could take a flight to Bengaluru which would be a cheaper option rather than hiring a taxi which is an expensive proposition," he said.
The accused insisted that she would travel by taxi only, and accordingly a vehicle was arranged on January 8 in which she left early in the morning. Later, when the apartment staff went to clean the room in which she stayed, they found blood stains on a towel, Naik said.
"The management of the apartment immediately informed the Calangute police, who then reached the spot," he said.
The staff also informed that the woman's four-year-old son was not seen with her when she left the apartment and she was also carrying an unusually heavy bag, he said.
The police then called the accused and enquired with her about the blood stains and her "missing" son.
"The accused told us that the blood stains were due to her monthly periods. She also told us that her son was with her friend in Margao town (in South Goa) and provided the address," the official said.
Naik said he immediately took the help of Fatorda police (near Margao) and got to know the address given by her was fake.
The inspector later spoke over the phone to the taxi driver, who was on way to Bengaluru and had reached Chitradurga district in Karnataka, to take the accused to the nearest police station.
The police in Chitradurga checked the woman's bag in which they found the body of the child, Naik said.
A team of the Calangute police then rushed to Chitradurga and obtained a transit remand of the accused, who was being brought to Goa.
The post-mortem of the body would be conducted in Chitradurga, Naik said.
An offence was registered against Seth under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence), and also under the Goa Children's Act at the Calangute police station in Goa, he said.
"Seth was brought to Goa around 1 pm on Tuesday and presented before a court in Mapusa town, which remanded her in police custody for six days," another police official said.
Although the accused is yet to be interrogated, she told the investigators that she and her husband were estranged and that their divorce proceedings were currently underway.
Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Nidhin Valsan said, "A team of Goa police, which is investigating the case, visited Chitradurga district in Karnataka and formally placed the accused under arrest." "What she has told us so far is that she and her husband were estranged and that they are currently undergoing divorce proceedings," he said.
The accused woman hails from West Bengal and has been living in Bengaluru, while her husband is from Kerala. He is currently in Jakarta (Indonesia) and he has been informed about the incident, Valsan said.
According to him, the accused woman had stuffed the child's body in her "luggage".
The motive behind the boy's murder would be known only after her interrogation, he said.
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