Chennai techie counters wife’s ‘sex-predator’, ‘abduction of their child’ charges amid bitter custody battle

Prasanna Sankar, the co-founder of Rippling, a start-up firm, has shared a point-by-point rebuttal to his wife Dhivya's charges that he had "kidnapped" their nine-year-old son and was a "sex predator".

Dhivya had made the accusations after Sankar went public with their legal dispute and accused her of using the police to harass him since she was unhappy with their divorce settlement.

He had claimed that his wife filed numerous cases against him in Singapore - including those of rape and leaking her nude videos - but the police found them to be false.

Sankar has now added WhatsApp screenshots and email exchanges between their lawyers in a long thread, accusing his wife of "abducting" their son to the US from Singapore.

He accused his wife of "brainwashing" their son into believing that his father had abandoned him.

In one of the screenshots, he said that his wife had "voluntarily instructed" him to pick up their son from her house as per the mutually agreed terms, contrary to the claim that he took him by force or "kidnapped the child".

He also shared an email exchange between their lawyers in the US, which appeared to show the two sides had agreed to a "mutual consent divorce in India" and shared custody of their son.

The email detailed the division of assets and said Dhivya must get monthly support of $5,000. Sankar agreed to pay for all expenses of the child and have a "50/50 parenting plan".

He said this contradicted his wife's claim that he had "forced" her to sign the agreement against her will. They had not spoken for months, he claimed.

He also contested Dhivya's claim that he forced her to come to India from Singapore - by sharing a court ruling that appeared to show she was ordered to return the child. The filing mentions the court ruling was in the favour of Prasanna, but does not share any detail about the case.

The incident came to light after Sankar, in a series of X posts, narrated how he was allegedly harassed by his wife.

In the post, Sankar claimed he was on the run from Tamil Nadu.

Sankar said his 10-year marriage with his wife Dhivya collapsed over the latter's alleged extra-marital affair.

Amid their negotiating process as a part of divorce, Sankar claimed his wife filed a fake police complaint accusing him of assaulting her and raping her.