A Reddit post that went viral on Sunday highlighted an old Facebook comment made by Esha Verma, daughter of businessman Ashwin K. Verma. In her comment, Esha accused actor Rupali Ganguly of having an affair with her father while he was still married to her mother Sapna, labelling her "cruel-hearted". “She has had an affair with Ashwin K Verma for twelve years while he was in his second marriage. Ashwin has two daughters from his previous marriages. She is nothing but a cruel-hearted woman who has done nothing but tried to separate me and my sister, his own daughters from their father,” reads a part of the 2020 post.
This prompted Ashwin to release a statement on X denying the allegations.
In a subsequent Instagram post on her Stories, Esha remarked, “There’s a darker side to this story... All I ask for is compassion as it unfolds.”
Consequently, we reached out to Esha, who reiterates, “My parents got married in 1997 and didn’t divorce till 2008. We have documentation to show that... Rupali has posed as if they (she and Ashwin) were friends and in love. There are pictures of (Rupali) as an actor in the commercials my father directed. That’s where the affair began; he would film for three months at a time and come home (to New Jersey) for a short time. It would be back and forth from India to New Jersey. We didn’t know about it then, but Rupali pretty much knew about all of us.”
Ashwin and Rupali got married in 2013.
Meanwhile, an Instagram picture of Esha posing happily with Rupali and Ashwin from 2021 has also raised questions. The 26-year-old explains, “I posted that picture because I wanted to show he is my dad. He doesn’t acknowledge it; there are only pics of him with Rupali and their son on his account, but nowhere is a picture of me and my sister. They say they are a happy family, it’s like we are non existent.”
Consequently, we reached out to Esha, who reiterates, “My parents got married in 1997 and didn’t divorce till 2008. We have documentation to show that... Rupali has posed as if they (she and Ashwin) were friends and in love. There are pictures of (Rupali) as an actor in the commercials my father directed. That’s where the affair began; he would film for three months at a time and come home (to New Jersey) for a short time. It would be back and forth from India to New Jersey. We didn’t know about it then, but Rupali pretty much knew about all of us.”
Ashwin and Rupali got married in 2013.
Meanwhile, an Instagram picture of Esha posing happily with Rupali and Ashwin from 2021 has also raised questions. The 26-year-old explains, “I posted that picture because I wanted to show he is my dad. He doesn’t acknowledge it; there are only pics of him with Rupali and their son on his account, but nowhere is a picture of me and my sister. They say they are a happy family, it’s like we are non existent.”
Esha wanted to keep contact with her father, but says, “Rupali threatened my mother. If I spoke to him on call, she’d scream in the background. She even cornered me when I went to visit him in Mumbai. She told me, ‘You will regret if you ever do this again or say you want your parents to meet’. I was always afraid to go to India and couldn’t stay longer than two days with him.”
The last message she claims she got from her dad was a WhapsApp text telling her to take down the 2020 post and to say it wasn’t true, after which she deleted the app. She adds, "I have deactivated the app, I am really scared to check it. Rupali has no contact with me. I don’t know what his response is but I am sure it is not going to be very good. The biggest risk is my father wouldn’t want me in his life at all, which he hasn’t been, so it’s not much of a difference. I have to know and be ready for it. I am going to lose more than I gain from this. But this is my truth.”
We reached out to Rupali and her team for a reaction, but didn’t get a response.