Rippling co-founder's wife says son ‘kidnapped’ by ‘sexual pervert’ husband
Divya Shashidar, a US citizen, accused her husband of grave sexual offences and illegally transferring her property to her father-in-law
After Rippling co-founder Prasanna Sankar took to social media on Sunday to accuse his wife, Divya Shashidar, of infidelity and abducting their nine-year-old son, the latter, a US citizen, has sought the help of Chennai police to retrieve her nine-year-old son who was allegedly kidnapped by her tech entrepreneur husband, who she accused of grave sexual offences and tax evasion.
The woman has made these allegations in a video posted on social media which is going viral. HT.com could not independently verify the authenticity of claims made in her video.
“We are fighting a matrimonial dispute. Amid this, a person named Gokulakrishnan, claiming to be my husband's personal assistant, took my son away from me forcefully. I approached the police because I was struggling to know the actual whereabouts of my son. I have requested the police to find my son and give him back to me,” Divya said.
“Now, I do not know what to do. US Embassy and Chennai police are helping me to find the whereabouts of my son. I do not know whether he is being threatened by my husband's PA,” she added.
Husband is a ‘sexual pervert’
Divya alleged that her husband lost his job in the US after arrest in San Francisco on charges of soliciting prostitution. “He hid all this from us and forced us to move to Singapore,” she said.
The woman accused her husband as a “sexual pervert” who filmed his sexual assault on women using secret cameras and claimed to have been subject to similar abuses. “He was arrested by Singapore police and was let out on conditional bail,” he added.
The US citizen alleged that her husband snatched her son's passport and fled from Singapore, leading to fears of safety. “So, I was afraid of whether he would be able to kidnap my son,” she said.
‘Husband, father-in-law evaded taxes’
Pleading for help from authorities, Divya alleged that her husband threatened her and their son over a property dispute and forced them to come to India from Singapore. The woman claimed that she got to know about her husband's history of offences in the United States only after she was forced to relocate to Singapore two years ago.
Diya alleged that her husband illegally transferred her properties to his father in India, who transferred those assets to his brother in Thailand, with both individuals evading “billions of dollars” in taxes.
“Now, I do not know who owns these assets. They also forced me to sign an undertaking that I would not complain about these transactions to US authorities,” she said.
Divya also claimed that her husband was enticing people who are trying to help her with money and thwarting her attempts to pursue legal remedies. “This is injustice. I am a US citizen. How can he get orders which mandate me not to approach US authorities against him?”
She also alleged that her husband's father also has a history of committing similar offences on women due to which the two families could not sort out their matrimonial disputed through a dialogue.
“People say that children grow up in a similar way as their parents. My father-in-law has also indulged in sexual offences. He abused my mother-in-law and chased her away from home. Now I am in need of desperate help from Chennai police. Please help,” Divya pleaded in her testimony.
What did the husband say?
Meanwhile, the entrepreneur's statement also surfaced on social media, claiming that Divya cheated on him with a friend and filed a divorce case in the US rather than India to claim a higher compensation amount.
Prasanna accused Divya of “abducting” their son, after which he claimed to have won an international child abduction case from a US court, leading to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between them.
The entrepreneur alleged that disputes were complicated when he pursued legal remedies to make his wife comply with the MoU. He alleged that a false abduction was filed against him, causing Chennai police to search for him.
The official response of Chennai police is awaited in the case.
