The Madras High Court has issued a directive to the Chennai Police, ordering them not to harass Prasanna Sankaranarayanan, co-founder of the software firm Rippling, amidst ongoing legal proceedings in his divorce case. Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan responded to Sankaranarayanan’s plea by invoking Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, ensuring that the police abstain from undue interference under the pretext of investigation.
The court’s decision comes after Sankaranarayanan voiced allegations against his estranged wife via an X thread earlier this week. He accused her of lodging false complaints leading to his wrongful portrayal as a sexual predator and falsely stating that he was involved in a prostitution case in the United States. He also claimed she was attempting to abduct their son.
Represented by senior advocates A Ramesh and Geeta Luthra, Sankaranarayanan filed a petition on March 24, alleging that the police were harassing him at the instigation of his wife. According to the petition, there were several instances between March 7 and 12 where police allegedly tried to forcibly remove his son from his custody at various locations in Chennai, including his hotel room and vacation rental. The petition also highlighted incidents in Bengaluru where Sankaranarayanan’s mother and a friend were purportedly harassed by the police with demands to surrender his son.
The legal plea emphasized the “false and malicious complaints” by Sankaranarayanan’s wife as the basis for the police’s actions, which not only targeted him but also involved his family and friends. It detailed an agreement reached in February through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) where the couple agreed to a mutual consent divorce and joint custody of their son. They had planned to reside in Chennai and secure their son’s travel documents in a joint locker.
However, the situation escalated when, according to the plea, Sankaranarayanan’s wife took their son into her custody on March 3, subsequently failing to adhere to the MoU stipulations about the joint locker for travel documents. She is also accused of lodging a false complaint shortly after and has reportedly refused to appear before the Chennai court where their divorce proceedings are pending.
