India: Police find Suchana Seth's cryptic note hinting at why startup CEO allegedly killed her son

Suchana Seth, an Indian startup CEO who had allegedly smothered her four-year-old son in a hotel room in the western state of Goa, had written a five-sentence note in English which has now been discovered by the police and is likely to help understand the motive behind the spine-chilling crime which shocked the entire nation.

"Court and my (estranged) husband pressurising me to give custody of my son, and I cannot take it anymore," read the note, which has been written with an eyeliner, according to investigators..

"My ex-husband is violent... he used to teach bad manners to (my) son. I don't want to give even a day's custody to the father,” the note added.

Seth, the CEO of artificial intelligence firm The Mindful AIallegedly dumped the dead body of her son in the trunk of the taxi she hired to escape from Goa to the southern city of Bengaluru before the police arrested her on Monday afternoon (Jan 8) in a dramatic operation.

Cryptic note emerges as crucial piece of evidence

The police found the handwritten note in one of the bags which was being carried by Seth when she was travelling in the taxi.

According to the police officers, it appeared that Seth had used an eyeliner to hurriedly scribble on tissue paper.

However, she later tried to destroy the note, which was crumpled and shredded.

The letter narrated the woman's state of mind and expressed her possible motive behind killing her own son, said the police on Thursday (Jan 11).

Suchana 'sang a lullaby' to her son before killing him

As per the investigators, Suchana said that she "sang a lullaby" to her son so as to make him sleep before allegedly smothering him.

"The note we have attached is a crucial piece of evidence in the case, establishing her mental condition," said a police officer, as quoted by The Times of India newspaper.

"The issue of custody of her son must have been at the back of her mind for many days, triggering the drastic step,” he added.

Watch:Bengaluru based CEO mother charged with murder of 4-year-old son in Goa

The police said that they would send the note for the handwriting's forensic verification.

"She was in touch with her doctor, a parental therapist, before committing the crime. We are verifying call details to know who she called after the boy's death," said the police officer.

Suchana had checked in Candolim's Hotel Sol Banyan Grande Room 404 where she allegedly killed her son and also slit her own wrist in a suspected suicide attempt.

The police had found two empty bottles of cough syrup in the room, which suggested that she tried intoxicating her son.

(With inputs from agencies)