Suchana Seth,the CEO of an artificial intelligence startup who previously worked in New York, is accused of murdering her 4-year-old son in southwest India, local police announced Tuesday.
Seth, who served as head of The Mindful AI Lab, was arrested Monday night and allegedly had the body of her son stuffed into her luggage, reported The Economic Times.
The incident occurred in Candolim, a small town in the western Indian state of Goa. Suspicions reportedly arose among the staff at a hotel where Seth was staying, after she insisted on traveling by taxi 14 hours to her home in Bengaluru despite the staff suggesting air travel would be far more cost effective.
After she left, staffers found a bloodstain in Seth’s hotel room, prompting a police investigation and a review of CCTV footage that showed her leaving the building without her son.
Cops were then able to get in contact with the taxi driver who was taking her home and instructed the cabbie to take Seth, 39, to the nearest police station, according to Goa police inspector Paresh Naik.
Seth reportedly told authorities that she dropped her son off at a friend’s house in Fatorda, but the provided address turned out to be a fake.
“When her luggage was opened, the child’s dead body was found,” North Goa Superintendent of Police Nidhin Valsan told reporters.
The motive behind the murder can only be known after an investigation was finished, Valsan added.
Seth reportedly mentioned to police that she’s in the midst of an ongoing divorce with her husband, an AI developer based in Indonesia.
She was arraigned in Goa around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday and presented before a court, which ruled that she will remain in police custody for six days, police said.
Seth, who studied at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, was recognized as one of the top “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021.”
Her LinkedIn page also showed her working in the greater New York City area from 2016 to 2017 and in Boston from 2017 to 2019, during her time at Harvard.
