Alleged rape, child abduction: Rippling founder Prasanna Sankar shares ‘heartbreaking’ legal disputes with wife

In a twist stranger than fiction, Prasanna Sankar, the co-founder of the $10-billion tech giant Rippling, now finds himself on the run, not from competitors or regulators but from the Tamil Nadu police. The reason is a highly-publicised and deeply-personal domestic dispute that has erupted into a full-blown legal and media war.

Once hailed as India’s top coder and an NIT Trichy alumnus, Prasanna went on to achieve massive success in Silicon Valley. The entrepreneur, who left Rippling in 2020, now faces a turn in life, both swift and dramatic.

In a sensational Twitter (now X) post, Prasanna has shared that he is fleeing Tamil Nadu, hiding with his 9-year-old son. The post comes amid allegations ranging from assault to rape, the claims he vehemently denies and calls fabricated.

The dispute stems from his ongoing divorce with his wife, Dhivya, whom he accused of having an extramarital affair. According to Prasanna, after refusing to pay additional millions beyond a negotiated ₹9 crore settlement, Dhivya retaliated with serious accusations.

“She then proceeded to abduct my child to the US to help with her divorce case. I filed an international child abduction case in the US. And the judge ruled in favour of me and asked to return the child,” Prasanna claimed.

He says he has full custody rights under a Memorandum of Understanding and that his son was “voluntarily handed over”.

His posts detail a cat-and-mouse chase across cities, alleged police overreach and even threats to his close friends.

One of them, Gokul, was allegedly picked up by Chennai police from Bengaluru without a warrant and held for days to pressure Prasanna into silence. “If I do not remove my twitter posts - he'd be in trouble,” Prasanna posted.

Despite the grave tone of the allegations, Prasanna remains defiant.

“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,” he wrote.

He said that his court petition seeking protection from police harassment would be filed on March 24.

Social media reactions

“Read it once. Then twice. And somewhere between the words, I felt something break. A man. A husband. A father,” one social media user reacted to Prasanna’s post.

“This breaks my heart! The sad state of justice in our country hits harder when things like these happen closer to the neighbourhood and to someone who has a lot,” came from another.

“I hate it so much every time I see women misusing laws to practically harass men. It feels like laws no longer treat men as people, and it's heartbreaking to see infidelity and greed becoming so common that people can’t see beyond them,” reacted another.