Chennai: Chennai-based tech entrepreneur Prasanna Sankar, co-founder of the billion-dollar company Rippling, alleged harassment by his estranged wife amid a legal battle over divorce and custody of their child. In a series of tweets, Prasanna claimed that his wife, Dhivya, was having an extramarital affair.
Sankar alleged that the police were harassing him and his associates, including his friend Gokul, who was allegedly detained without an FIR. Notably, accusations of domestic abuse, child abduction, police misconduct and defamation are surfacing from both sides.
Sankar and his were married for 10 years and have a 9-year-old son. In his X posts, the Chennai-based techie alleged that Dhivya was having an affair with a man named Anoop for more than six months. He alleged that Anoop’s wife provided him with proof, including messages and hotel bookings made by Dhivya.
Meanwhile, the Chennai-based techie also accused his wife of filing fake cases of rape and domestic violence against him.
Who Is Prasanna Sankar?
As per his LinkedIn profile, Sankar is a tech entrepreneur. he is an angel investor. Sankar is the co-founder of Rippling.com. As per the Chennai-techie's LinkedIn bio, this company is currently valued at $10B; Starting something new in the blockchain space.
He is also the founder 0xPPL, "The Social Network for Crypto Natives". It is a Singapore-based company which was started in 2023.
Sankar studied B.tech in computer science at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. In his X posts, Sankar claimed that he met Dhivya at NIT Trichy.
"Born in Chennai, lived here for 20 years. I studied in NIT Trichy where I met my wife. I was ranked as #1 coder in India. I went to the US to start technology companies," Sankar said in his X post.
Sankar also claimed that the Singapore police investigated these allegations and found them to be false. He then filed for divorce in India, while Divya filed for divorce in the U.S., allegedly to gain a larger financial settlement.
Child Custody Battle and Alleged Abduction:
As per Sankar, Dhivya took their son to the US in violation of the law to strengthen her divorce case. In response, he filed an international child abduction case in a US court. He says the court ruled in his favour and ordered Dhivya to return their son to India. To settle the matter, they signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), under which Prasanna agreed to pay ₹9 crore as a settlement and ₹4.3 lakh per month in child support.
According to Sankar, Chennai police raided his mother’s house and questioned her about his whereabouts.
Counterclaims by Dhivya and the Police
On the other hand, Dhivya and the Chennai police have refuted Prasanna’s allegations. According to their version:
Dhivya had come to Chennai from the U.S. with her son.
On March 11, Prasanna’s assistant Gokul forcibly took the child away.
When Dhivya contacted Gokul, he said that the child was with Prasanna and would be returned by March 5.
After the child was not returned, Dhivya filed a kidnapping complaint on March 9 at the Thirumangalam police station.
The police began investigating the case and denied allegations of bribery and harassment, stating that Prasanna was defaming the police to escape the child abduction charges.
