Prasanna Shankar, also known as Prasanna Sankaranarayanan, is an Indian-origin tech entrepreneur and the co-founder of Rippling, a San Francisco-based HR and workforce management software company valued at approximately $10 billion. Born and raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy, where he met his estranged wife, Dhivya Sashidhar. The couple married over a decade ago and have a nine-year-old son. Recently, Shankar has been embroiled in a highly publicized and contentious divorce and custody battle, during which he has accused Dhivya of engaging in an extramarital affair with a man named Anoop Kuttysankaran for over six months.
Shankar alleges that he discovered the affair after receiving WhatsApp screenshots and hotel booking details from Anoop’s wife, which he later shared publicly on X (formerly Twitter) as evidence. According to Shankar, the affair led to the breakdown of their marriage, prompting divorce proceedings. He claims that during negotiations over a financial settlement—where he agreed to pay Dhivya ₹9 crore (approximately USD 1.1 million) and ₹4.3 lakh (about USD 51,000) monthly in alimony—she became dissatisfied and retaliated by filing what he describes as false police complaints against him. These complaints, lodged in Chennai, India, allegedly include accusations of domestic violence, rape, and child kidnapping. Shankar asserts that the Singapore police investigated similar allegations, found them baseless, and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
The custody dispute escalated when Shankar accused Dhivya of abducting their son and taking him to the United States to bolster her divorce case there, which he claims was an attempt to secure a larger financial settlement. In response, Shankar filed an international child abduction case in a U.S. court, which he says ruled in his favor, ordering the child’s return to India. Following this, the couple reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreeing to 50-50 custody and the financial terms mentioned earlier. However, Shankar alleges that Dhivya violated the MoU by refusing to deposit their son’s passport in a shared locker—a precaution he insisted on to prevent her from fleeing with the child again. When he withheld custody until she complied, Dhivya allegedly filed a kidnapping complaint against him with the Chennai police.
Shankar claims that this complaint triggered a harassment campaign by the Chennai police, forcing him to go on the run with his son and hide outside Tamil Nadu. He has accused the police of tracking his phone, car, and UPI transactions, raiding his mother’s home, and detaining his friend Gokul, who assisted in transferring custody of the child. Shankar further alleges that the police demanded ₹25 lakh (approximately USD 30,000) to release Gokul, escalating the situation into what he describes as extortion. In a series of viral X posts on March 23, 2025, Shankar detailed his ordeal, stating that his entire family has been displaced and is hiding from law enforcement.
Dhivya Sashidhar, a U.S. citizen, has countered with her allegations, claiming that Shankar forcibly took their son on March 11, 2025, during a visit to Chennai, and failed to return him. In a viral video response, she accused Shankar of being a “sexual pervert” who secretly filmed women, including herself, and alleged that he was arrested in San Francisco for soliciting prostitution, leading to his departure from Rippling in 2020. She also claimed he assaulted her in Singapore and that the U.S. Embassy and Chennai police are assisting her in recovering her son. These counterclaims remain unverified, and Shankar denies them, pointing to the Singapore police investigation that cleared him.
The legal battle spans multiple jurisdictions—India, the U.S., and Singapore—complicating the resolution of the case. Shankar, who left Rippling in 2020 after co-founding it in 2016 with Parker Conrad, now runs 0xPPL, a Singapore-based decentralized social network for crypto enthusiasts launched in 2023. His net worth is estimated at $1 billion (approximately ₹9,000 crore) by Forbes, largely tied to his Rippling stake. Before Rippling, Shankar worked at tech giants like Google (as an intern in 2006) and Microsoft Canada and co-founded LikeALittle, a campus social network. Known for his competitive programming prowess, he was ranked #1 in India on TopCoder and was a two-time finalist in Google Code Jam and ACM ICPC during his college years.
