Rippling co-founder Prasanna Sankar, who was on the run from Chennai Police over false rape and domestic violence cases filed by his wife amid their divorce and legal battle over the custody of their nine-year-old son has shared an update. Sankar stated that he is now at peace as his family is returning home, and the police have released his friend Gokul. He also said that police had assured him that no arrests would be made and that they would conduct investigations into the cases filed by his wife.
‘We have peace,” Sankar wrote in an update on X (formerly Twitter). He added, “Commissioner has assured there’d be no arrests. Will leave child custody to courts. Just wants to investigate if real kidnapping happened.”
The Singapore-based entrepreneur, who co-founded a $10 billion company with Parker Conard, expressed gratitude to his supporters and credited the police commissioner for “stepping in and resolving the crisis”. “My dad is returning back to his home. I’m getting back to doing productive work,” he further wrote.
Prasanna Sankar also shared an update about his friend Gokul who was allegedly detained by police without any charges. “Gokul is back home and is no longer being taken to the station,” he wrote.
Sankar earlier alleged that Gokul was picked up by police from Bengaluru and brought back to Chennai. He added that police demanded Rs 23 lakh from him for his friend’s release. “They are telling him if I don’t surrender he’d be harassed. They have not produced him in front of a magistrate. Instead every morning they call him to the station and make him sit till night and let him go,” he wrote in his social media post on March 23.
He also shared a WhatsApp conversation dated March 3, claiming it proved his wife voluntarily handed over their son, contradicting her claims of ‘forcibly’ taking him away. “Here’s evidence of voluntary hand-over. She’s somehow now claiming it was ‘forced’,” he wrote while sharing the screenshot.
On March 3, Dhivya wrote, “NEST school at 11 AM, right? Prasanna can take Amar with him after the school appointment.”
After confirming the school was closed that day, another message read: “Hey Dhivya, just spoke to the school coordinator. They had their sports day last Saturday it seems, and have declared a holiday today. They have asked to come tomorrow. Shall we pick up Amar from your place at 11 AM?”
To this, Dhivya agreed. She wrote, “Yes, ok,” with a thumbs-up emoji.
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.
Dhivya Sashidhar’s counterclaims
Dhivya, on the other hand, has accused Prasanna of forcibly taking their son and refusing to return him. “We returned to India and I thought at least now my son and I could live peacefully but he is not allowing that too,” she said as quoted by local media.
Dhivya even called her husband a “sex predator”, claiming that he secretly recorded women, leading to his arrest in Singapore. He was later released. She said that he lost his job over this.
According to Dhivya, Prasanna also threatened her and their son over a property dispute, forcing them to relocate from Singapore to India. She has sought intervention from authorities to resolve the matter.
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).