The shocking claims against Indian techie Prasanna Sankar by wife

Weeks after Rippling co-founder and billionaire tech entrepreneur Prasanna Sankar made serious allegations against his estranged wife, Dhivya Sasidharan, amid a messy divorce and custody dispute, she has now responded with explosive claims of her own.

Sankar, whose net worth is estimated at $1.3 billion by Forbes, recently grabbed headlines after taking to X to say he was “on the run” from Chennai law enforcement agencies, citing harassment in the false cases filed by his wife. He alleged that Sasidharan had accused him of “kidnapping” their son and claimed she had been unfaithful during their marriage, all while he was trying to gain custody of their nine-year-old child.

But Sasidharan is now telling a different side of the story.

She alleges that Sankar not only solicited sex workers during their marriage but also pressured her into accepting an open relationship. Her version of events, as reported by The San Francisco Standard, includes a trove of evidence, spanning court filings, emails, text messages, and photographs, that supports her claims.

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Here’s a closer look at the escalating controversy.

‘Worst nightmare of my life’

Sasidharan has described her marriage as a deeply traumatic experience, calling it “the worst nightmare of my life.”

In an interview with The San Francisco Standard, she recounted how Sankar allegedly pressured her into having “painful sex” shortly after she gave birth in 2016, claiming it was a “primal need” for men. When she refused, she says, he warned her of the consequences.

“Prasanna would come and tell me, ‘Look, sex is a primal need for me. You have to do it. It doesn’t matter, like, you know, how much pain you’re in,’” Sasidharan told the outlet.

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“He would literally, like, tell me that, you know, ‘If you don’t do it, then I want to go outside and get it,’” she added.

Supporting her account, The San Francisco Standard report cites an email Sankar sent to Sasidharan in December 2019, in which he admitted to contacting multiple escorts, requesting their photos and rates—before backing out.

“I’m super sorry for the stress this put on our marriage. I promise to never put our marriage in this position again,” he wrote.

Later that same day, Sankar reportedly sent another email, this time suggesting the idea of an open marriage.

Asked about his messages, Sankar told The San Francisco Standard about proposing an open marriage, saying that at the time, their relationship was “sexless,” and he had “several conversations with her to understand why this was the case.”

“I once in a moment of anger discussed about opening up the marriage to other sexual partners,” he wrote. “We agreed not to do it.”

Moved from one place to another to evade taxes

According to the report, Sankar moved his family to California in 2020, allegedly with the intention of avoiding state taxes. At the time, Sasidharan was working remotely for Microsoft, the report noted.

In one of her court statements, Sasidharan alleged that Sankar would pressure her to take time off work, specifically to have sex with him. If she didn’t comply, she said, he would threaten to seek out other partners.

The couple spent two years in Washington before Sankar relocated the family again—this time to Singapore. Sasidharan testified that this decision was primarily driven by Sankar’s desire to move his overseas assets back into his control without raising red flags with US tax authorities.

In court, Sankar admitted to having family assets in places like American Samoa and Saint Kitts and Nevis, and acknowledged that he believed paying US taxes was wasteful—one of the main reasons behind the move.

After they shifted there, Sasidharan lost her job and was unable to work due to being on a dependent visa issued through Sankar. “Singapore was completely not in the family’s plan, ever,” Sasidharan said in her testimony. “And it just felt like an abruption to everybody’s life.”

Sankar and Sashidhar met as students at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, and married 10 years ago. They now have a nine-year-old son.

Spy cameras, multiple sex partners

Sasidharan claimed that things worsened after they moved to Singapore. The San Francisco Standard report states that Sankar repeatedly told his wife she had no entitlement to his money, while she was left at home caring for their son.

During this time, Sasidharan said that Sankar became involved with what she described as a “crowd of high-society hedonists” and engaged in “frivolous sexual behaviour with many partners/sex workers.”

She also accused him of installing hidden cameras around their home to monitor her.

According to her testimony, Sankar even encouraged her to sleep with his friends—something she refused. The experience left her feeling “scared,” “violated,” and “destroyed.”

“That was where, like, you know, our marriage broke,” she said.

Techie denies wife’s allegations

Sankar has denied all allegations against his estranged wife. “It might be pertinent to note here that not a single charge against me has been upheld by any court anywhere in the world so far. All my wife’s false complaints have been dismissed thus far,” he said.

Earlier, Sankar alleged that his wife, Dhivya Sasidharan, was involved in an extramarital affair—an accusation he claims is backed by evidence from the husband of the man in question. According to Sankar, this evidence included text messages and hotel booking records.

He said the divorce proceedings took a sharp downturn after he confronted her with this information.

“After that, we were negotiating the terms of how many million dollars I needed to pay her as a part of our divorce. She was unhappy and decided to instead file a fake police complaint against me, saying I hit her,” Sankar stated.

He also accused Sasidharan of abducting their young son and taking him to the United States, prompting him to file an international child abduction case. Sankar claims the US court ultimately ruled in his favour, resulting in a formal agreement between the two.

As per the terms of this understanding, Sankar had to pay his wife approximately Rs 9 crore, a monthly sum of Rs 4.3 lakh, and share joint custody of their son.

He further claimed that Sasidharan later negotiated with him to return to Chennai so that they could co-parent their child, which initially went as planned.

But trouble resurfaced when, according to Sankar, she refused to comply with the agreement—specifically, the clause about keeping their son’s passport in a shared locker. The disagreement led to another round of legal disputes, with Sankar returning to court to demand enforcement of the clause.

He alleged that Sasidharan skipped the hearing and instead lodged a police complaint against him. Not long after, Sankar claimed police officers arrived at his hotel late at night, forcing him to leave with his son to avoid what he described as an unjust arrest.

Sankar said he provided authorities with evidence that his son was safe and “happy,” but that didn’t stop the search.

He accused police of continuing to pursue him, allegedly harassing his family and friends and demanding Rs 25 lakh in extortion. He also accused them of tracking his movements illegally, including seizing the phone of a caretaker he had paid Rs 200 through UPI, and raiding an Airbnb he had stayed in earlier.

With input from agencies