Suchana Seth Asked Why We Stopped at a Police Station, But Was Calm: Cab Driver | Exclusive

Suchana Seth remained calm throughout the road trip from Goa to Chitradurga in Karnataka where she was arrested for allegedly murdering her four-year-old son after the child’s body was found in a bag she was carrying, the driver of the taxi she hired from Goa has said in his statement to the police.

In the statement, accessed by News18, the driver, Rayjohn D’Souza, said the 39-year-old “did not react” even when he pulled into the police station on their way to Bengaluru or when the police discovered her son’s body in the bag.

Suchana Seth, who heads an artificial intelligence start-up, had checked into a hotel in Goa’s Candolim on January 6 and had stayed there till January 8. She allegedly killed her son in the apartment and stuffed the body in a bag, planning to take it to Bengaluru by road.

She hired a taxi from the hotel on the night of January 8, brushing aside the hotel staff’s advice that a flight to Bengaluru might be cheaper.

In his statement to the police, driver Royjohn D’Souza said he received Suchana’s booking around midnight. Given the late hour, D’Souza said he quoted a higher fare and she confirmed it within 10 minutes.

D’Souza said he took another driver along for the trip since it was a long journey. Within an hour, D’Souza reached Hotel Sol Banyan Garden to pick up Suchana. Her demeanour, he said in the statement, was “calm and composed”.

When loading Suchana Seth’s luggage into the car, D’Souza said he noticed the red bag was unusually heavy and mentioned the same to her. “She said the bag contained antiques and glasses which is why it was heavy,” he said.

They reached Chorla Ghat a few hours later and were stuck in a massive traffic jam because of an accident nearby. “I suggested I’ll drop her at the airport since it was closer and told her the jam would clear up only after four hours. But she insisted on staying in the car.”

She remained calm during this time, D’Souza said in the statement. He said they stopped for breakfast around 7am at the Goa-Karnataka border, but Suchana Seth did not step out of the car and continued to sit at the same spot.

Back in Goa, the hotel staff had by this time discovered blood stains in the room Suchana had vacated and alerted the police. By 11am, a constable in the Goa Police called up D’Souza wanting to speak to Suchana. He asked her the whereabouts of her son and she calmly gave them a local address, claiming the four-year-old was there, the driver said.

When the address turned out to be a fake one, a police inspector called up D’Souza and spoke to him in Konkani so as not to alert Suchana Seth. D’Souza was told to immediately drive to the next police station.

To buy time and figure out the directions to the nearest police station, D’Souza stopped by a restaurant on the way and asked his friend who he had brought along to keep an eye on Suchana. He googled the information and also asked a guard at the restaurant for directions to the nearest police station. He spoke to the guard in Hindi, the statement said.

The guard told him to drive another 500 metres for the police station. Sometime then, Suchana Seth asked the driver’s friend where he was. She was told that D’Souza was taking a bathroom break.

D’Souza returned and while on call with the police inspector, he pulled into the police station. At this point, Suchana asked him why he had stopped at the police station and D’Souza replied that there was an issue.

“She did not give any reaction,” he said in the statement.

Once inside the police station, policewomen opened Seth’s red bag and beneath a pile of 3-4 clothing items, saw the hand of the dead child. Suchana Seth reportedly did not react even when her son’s body was discovered in her red bag.

Suchana Seth was arrested in Chitradurga and was brought to Goa on Tuesday. She reportedly told interrogators about her troubled marriage, and is in police custody for six days.

A post-mortem has revealed that the four-year-old child was smothered to death either with a piece of cloth or a pillow. The child’s body was cremated in Bengaluru on Wednesday by his father Venkat Raman.