Indian startup CEO arrested after body of 4-year-old son found in luggage

The CEO of an Indian AI startup has been arrested on suspicion that she murdered her four-year-old son after his body was found in her luggage, police said on Tuesday.

Suchana Seth, who heads the Mindful AI Lab in India’s tech hub of Bengaluru, was detained in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka state when she was returning from the neighbouring state of Goa by taxi and arrested after the body was found in her luggage, they said.

Seth could not be reached for comment as she was in custody and police said they did not know if she has a lawyer as yet. Staff at her company could not be reached for comment.

Seth had checked into a hotel with her son in Goa on Saturday but the boy was not with her when she checked out on Monday night, Goa police inspector Paresh Naik said.

Hotel cleaning staff found blood stains in the room after she checked out and informed the police, Naik added.

Police then got in touch with the taxi driver by phone and asked him to take Seth to the nearest police station, he said.

“When her luggage was opened, the child's dead body was found,” North Goa Superintendent of Police Nidhin Valsan told reporters.

Goa police brought Seth back to the state, Valsan said, adding that her husband was in Indonesia and had been asked to come to India.

Reuters was unable to contact Seth's husband or anyone in her family for comment.

A local court remanded her to six days in police custody, news agency ANI reported.