KOLKATA:

Senior academics

in Kolkata are reeling in shock after learning that a “

bright student

” they had taught, who also earned academic laurels, could be involved in killing her own child.
Suchana Seth

(39), a start-up founder and CEO from Bengaluru, was on Monday charged with murdering her four-year-old son in a service apartment in north Goa’s Candolim and hiring a taxi to travel to Karnataka with the body in a bag.

Though she attended school in Chennai, Seth had spent her college days in Kolkata. A physics department professor at The Bhawanipur Education Society College, from where Seth graduated with a first class in physics honours, said, “I still can remember the girl. She was a bright student. I remember she got a fellowship at The Raman Research Institute for research. This was something special. It is not easy for a college student to achieve this feat.”

Another academic said that after leaving college, Seth never came to meet them again. The teacher said she was reluctant to keep contact with her college friends and faculty members. “We have a college alumni association where former students get connected with us. But she never contacted us or tried to get into these groups.”
After her BSc, Seth took admission in the physics department of Calcutta University for her postgraduation. A CU physics department professor said, “If I am not wrong, she is the same student whom I taught in 2007-08. She was attentive in her studies. I am surprised she could commit such a heinous

crime. She was extremely well-behaved.”
TOI spoke to at least three veteran professors of these two institutions but none said they ever saw any abnormality in her behaviour during her graduation and postgraduation.
She used to participate in quizzes and won a national talent search scholarship. She received CBSE merit certificates in Sanskrit, social science and English in class X and did a postgraduate diploma in Sanskrit from Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark.
Going by the academic record, Seth used to stay at EA Block in Salt Lake. On Tuesday, TOI visited the neighbourhood and spoke to locals, but could not trace where she stayed.
A senior Salt Lake police officer said they have received no information from their Goa counterparts for a local enquiry.