Bengaluru start-up CEO kills 4-year-old son: What went wrong?

The Bengaluru-based CEO of an artificial intelligence start-up, Suchana Seth, made headlines when she was apprehended by Karnataka Police in Chitradurga on Monday night for murdering her four-year-old and carrying his dead body in a bag. Seth, 39, was en route from Candolim, Goa, to Bengaluru in a cab when she was detained.

Regarding the case’s complexity, Dr Sneha Sharma, a consultant psychiatrist, raises the possibility of “parental alienation” as a potential motive: “An immature parent could seek control over the child by instilling negative perceptions about the other parent.” This notion might be associated with Seth’s actions, considering her reluctance to allow her ex-husband to interact with their child. Dr Paramjeet Singh, a consultant psychologist, highlights that instances of parents harming their children is often tied to issues such as “poverty, relationship problems and familial discord”. He also notes “less common factors such as parental depression contributing to such tragic incidents”. However, the motive behind harming the child remains unresolved for now.

Notwithstanding Seth’s professional accomplishments (a 12-year career in mentoring data science teams; refer to below) — experts emphasise that such incidents “may not always stem from mental illness”. Dr Sharma points out that “individuals capable of cold-blooded crimes might exhibit a psychopathic personality, characterised by intelligence and comprehension of societal norms but a lack of empathy”.

Who is Suchana Seth?

• Seth is the founder and CEO of the start-up, Mindful AI Lab.
• She has a Master’s degree in Physics specialising in Plasma Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Calcutta.
• She has been featured on the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics List 2021 and has been a Mozilla Fellow at Data and Society, a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Centre at Harvard University, USA.
• She is also a research fellow at the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru.