After Rippling co-founder Prasanna Sankar accused his wife of adultery, false rape, and domestic violence cases in explosive social media posts, Dhivya Sashidhar has shared her side of the story. She claims that she had no information about the whereabouts of her son, which led her to seek help from the US Embassy before approaching the Chennai Police.
She also levelled serious allegations against her husband, calling him a “sexual pervert” and accusing him of having a criminal history. She claimed that he had previously lost a job due to similar misconduct.
‘Gokul forcibly took away my son’: Dhivya Sashidhar
“I have not seen my nine-year-old son for three weeks. Both my son and I are US citizens. We were in the US before coming here. Three weeks ago, my husband forcibly brought both me and my son from the US to India, citing a property dispute,” Dhivya said in a video statement.
She added that amid their ongoing divorce case, Prasanna’s friend, Gokul, “forcefully took her son away”. “I don’t know if he really took my son and handed him over to my husband or if he has kept my son somewhere else. I am suffering without knowing my son’s whereabouts. That’s why I went to the police and filed a complaint, requesting them to find my son and return him to me,” she added.
Rippling co-founder’s wife went on to say, “I have no idea what is happening. I am very scared. I don’t know what to do. I went to the US embassy. After that, the Chennai police have also been trying to help me find my son.”
Prasanna evaded taxes in the US
She also alleged that her husband evaded taxes in the US. “While we were in the US, my husband fraudulently transferred all our matrimonial assets to his father in India. He avoided paying US taxes and transferred the money to his father, who then transferred it to my husband’s brother, Vidyasagar, in Thailand. Now, I don’t know where all that money is.”
Dhivya further stated that she was coerced into signing documents related to her husband’s alleged tax crimes so that she and her son could live in peace.
‘He is a sexual pervert,’ says Dhivya
She also accused Prasanna of engaging in sexual offenses, claiming that he had secretly filmed women. “He installed hidden cameras in the bathroom and bedroom to film women, and engaged in sexual assault. I was also a victim of this. The Singapore police arrested him for these crimes, but he was released on conditional bail.”
“Not only that, but many years ago, he was arrested in a sting operation in San Francisco for solicitation and prostitution. Because of this, he lost his position at his company,” she added.
Making further shocking allegations, Dhivya claimed that Prasanna’s father was also involved in multiple sexual offenses: “What’s even worse is that his father also committed multiple sexual offenses, abused his wife, and threw her out of the house,” she claimed.
“I want justice. I need to know where my son is,” she pleaded.
Prasanna Sankar-Dhivya Sashidhar controversy
In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Prasanna claimed that he was falsely accused of rape and domestic violence amid an ongoing divorce and legal fight over their son’s custody. He alleged that his wife of 10 years, Dhivya, had an extramarital affair with a man named Anoop for over six months. The techpreneur claimed he discovered this through WhatsApp screenshots and hotel booking details sent to him by Anoop’s wife.
The couple then moved court for divorce and began negotiating with an alimony settlement. He, however, claimed that his wife was not satisfied with the settlement amount and filed false cases against him. He claimed that Singapore Police found her claims baseless and cleared him of all the charges.
Prasanna filed for divorce in India, and Dhivya in the US, allegedly seeking a higher alimony payout. He also accused her of attempting to abduct their son to the US to gain an advantage in the custody battle. Following this, he filed a child abduction case in the US, where the judge ruled in his favour.
The couple also singed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which Prasanna agreed to pay Rs 9 crore and Rs 4.3 lakh per month in financial support. They settled on a split custody of their son. The couple also agreed to deposit their child’s passport in a shared locker.
He claimed that Dhivya later refused to honour the MoU, declined to deposit their son’s passport, and demanded more money. He also accused Chennai Police of harassing not just him but his family and friends as well.
Who is Dhivya Sashidhar?
Dhivya Sashidhar is an alumna of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy), where she earned a BTech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering. It was at NIT Trichy that she first met Prasanna Sankar.
She later pursued an MPhil in Micro and Nanotechnology Enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Over the years, she has worked with leading global firms such as Microsoft and Shell before joining Eqqus Software, a software services and HR consulting firm, in 2015. She currently serves as the CEO of the Colorado-based company.
Who is Prasanna Sankar?
Prasanna Sankar, whose full name is Prasanna Sankaranarayanan, is an Indian-origin entrepreneur based in Singapore. An alumnus of NIT Trichy, he was once ranked among India’s top coders. He has worked at tech giants Google and Microsoft before co-founding Rippling, a workforce management software firm valued at $10 billion. He served as Rippling’s CTO for four years before leaving in 2020. In 2023, he founded 0xPPL, a crypto-focused social network. His estimated net worth, according to Forbes, is $1 billion (Rs 9,000 crore).