CHENNAI: The co-founder of a San Francisco-based HR tech company, valued at over 10 billion US dollars, alleged that the Assistant Commissioner of Thirumangalam Range and the SI at Thirumangalam police station have been harassing him to pay a bribe of Rs 25 lakh while investigating an alleged case of kidnapping filed by his wife.
In a post on ‘X’ Prasanna S from Chennai, co-founder of Rippling, said that the police have detained his friend for kidnapping based on a ‘false complaint’ filed by his wife.
“My wife and I have been going through a divorce and we have been sharing custody of our son. She handed over the child with full consent to my friend Gokul who brought him over to me, the father,” the post read. He added the police initially demanded Rs 2 lakh from his lawyer to ‘take care of the situation’ and have since upped their demand to Rs 25 lakh.
Prasanna’s wife, in her complaint, stated that their son was taken away from her by Gokul, the personal assistant of her husband, on March 3 after promising to drop the child back by March 5. However, since then, she has been unable to contact her son or find out his whereabouts. She lodged a complaint at Thirumangalam police station on March 9.
Speaking to TNIE, Prasanna said, “The cops are now pressuring him (Gokul) to give them my live location. He was told to speak to me on the phone and ask me for my location. I have now left the horrible, corrupt state of Tamil Nadu.”
Denying the allegations, police said Prasanna’s claims are unfounded and that they were merely investigating based on his wife’s complaint.