Chennai Techie Accuses Wife, Cops Of Harassment, She Calls Him 'Sex Predator'

A co-founder of a multi-billion dollar company, Prasanna Sankar, has accused his estranged wife of harassment amid a divorce and a bitter custody battle of their son. He also claimed that the Chennai police are trying to extort him of Rs 25 lakh as they are allegedly probing a "kidnap" complaint filed by his wife, Dhivya.

In a series of posts on X on Sunday evening, Sankar - the co-founder of Rippling, an HR-tech startup - who has now left the company, claimed that he was "on the run" from Chennai law enforcement after his estranged wife filed a complaint alleging that he "kidnapped" their son. However, he said, that the cops are "illegally without any FIR" tracking his cell phone location, car, UPI, and IP address.

Techie's allegations

Sankar claimed that his wife was having an affair, following which they had been going through a divorce. They were negotiating the terms of the amount he had to pay her, over which she was unhappy, he claimed.

"She decided to instead file a fake police complaint against me saying I hit her. Later, she made further fake complaints that I raped her (1 mo after the alleged rape). That i circulated her nude videos. etc. Singapore police have investigated these allegations, found them baseless and have cleared me from all charges," Sankar wrote.

The tech entrepreneur alleged that his wife "abducted" their nine-year-old son to the US, forcing him to file an international child abduction case. He claimed that the US court ruled in his favour, leading to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties. Under the terms of the agreement, Sankar had to pay his wife around Rs 9 crore and Rs 4.3 lakh per month and share a joint custody of their son.

Photo Credit: Image credit: x.com/myprasanna

Following this, Dhivya negotiated with him to come to Chennai and share their son's custody - which did happen for some time, he claimed.

However, tensions escalated between the two when his wife refused to comply with the MoU - especially over depositing their child's passport in a shared locker.

"She started claiming that the MOU is not valid and she wants more and will go to the US again to file a divorce, Sankar said.

This resulted in a further legal battle with Sankar approaching the courts saying he will only share the custody of their son after the passport is deposited in the locker. "She did not attend the courts. Instead she showed up to my hotel at 10 PM in the night and calls my son to the lobby for 10 minutes luring him which I stopped. She then chose to call the police and filed a kidnapping complaint against me," he said.

Fearing wrongful arrest, the techie fled with his son as the police knocked on their door.

According to Sankar, he even provided the police proof that his son was safe and "happy", but the police continued to search for him. "The cops were still trying to locate me to my surprise. They hit my mom's house and asked for me," he wrote on X.

The techie also claimed that the police detained his friend, Gokul - who helped pick up the child from his estranged wife - without a warrant.

"Last 3 days he is in custody without any FIR. 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. More recently, the threat is, that if I do not remove my Twitter posts - he'd be in trouble. They have told him to tell him, they will find me and make me face the consequences of going to the media," Sankar wrote.

He also claimed that the police seized the phone of a caretaker he had paid Rs 200 via UPI and raided an Airbnb where he stayed. "Luckily got out before," he said.

"Police and my wife will be conducting a joint press meet soon to accuse me of many crimes. They've also asked my friend Gokul to sign saying my social media tweets are false. To all supporters - to be clear. I'm feeling the most alive right now and it's great. I built an empire from nothing. I can handle this even if a state is on the other side. I'm a survivor not a victim," Sankar wrote.

My name is Prasanna, who previously founded Rippling (worth $10B); I'm going through a divorce. I'm now on the run from the Chennai police hiding outside of Tamil Nadu. This is my story.

— Prasanna S (@myprasanna) March 23, 2025

Sankar, then, accused the Chennai police of trying to extort him of Rs 25 lakh in order to release Gokul.

"The Thirumangalam, Chennai police station is harassing me for money knowing that I'm a successful founder. The AC and the SI have asked me for 25L to release my friend who has been in custody. Please RT for support," he wrote in a post on X.

Do I know any media people? The Thirumangalam, Chennai police station is harassing me for money knowing that I'm a successful founder. The AC and the SI have asked me for 25L to release my friend who has been in custody. Please RT for support. @CMOTamilnadu @PMOIndia

— Prasanna S (@myprasanna) March 22, 2025

A top police official in Chennai has also denied Sankar's allegations, calling them "baseless", local media reported.

What techie's wife claimed

According to local media reports, Dhivya, in her complaint, accused Sankar of "wrongdoing" and said their son was forcibly taken away from her and never returned.

The woman claimed that she and her son are citizens of the US. They returned to India earlier this month, following which Sankar took their son away from her, she reportedly said. "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.

She even reportedly called him a "sex predator", claiming that he used to "secretly record women" for which he was arrested in Singapore and later released. 

Reports also suggested that Dhivya accused Sankar of transferring their matrimonial assets to his father's name to evade taxes. According to her, Sankar's father transferred these assets to his brother in Thailand. She further reportedly alleged that the techie "threatened" her into signing documents that prevented her from reporting tax crimes in the US.