Prasanna S, the co-founder of a US-based company, has accused the Tamil Nadu police of extortion, alleging that officers demanded Rs 25 lakh for the release of his friend, who was taken into custody over a child custody dispute. The allegations are directed at R.D. Brahamanandan, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Thirumangalam, and G. Subbulakshmi, the Sub-Inspector (SI) of V5 Thirumangalam police station in Chennai.
In a series of tweets, Prasanna claimed that his friend, Gokul, was allegedly detained by the police following a complaint filed by Prasanna’s wife, Dhivya. Dhivya accused both men of kidnapping their nine-year-old son.
He claimed that the child was willingly handed over by Dhivya to Gokul, who then passed the child to Prasanna. However, Dhivya later filed a police complaint alleging that her son had been kidnapped and expressing fears for his safety.
Prasanna and Dhivya, who previously lived in the US, are reportedly engaged in a divorce and custody battle. According to Dhivya’s complaint, she had agreed to let Prasanna keep the child for two days starting from March 3, but he allegedly did not return him, and has since been unreachable.
Meanwhile, Prasanna claims that Dhivya failed to deposit their child’s passport in a common locker as per an MoU between them, and that he has approached the courts, refusing to return the child until the agreement is upheld.
“My wife and I have been going through a divorce and have been sharing custody of our son. My wife handed over the child with full consent to my friend Gokul who took him down two floors to hand him over to me - the child's father. My wife has since filed a false police complaint that my friend kidnapped my child and I might kill him,” Prasanna alleged.
Prasanna alleged that Gokul was arrested from his residence in Bengaluru on March 21 without proper procedure. He claimed that the Tamil Nadu police did not notify the Karnataka police about the arrest.
Prasanna claimed that the Chennai police demanded Rs 25 lakh for his friend’s release. He said that previously they extorted Rs 2 lakh from his lawyer, Prem Anand.
While Prasanna claims that Gokul had been detained at the V5 Thirumangalam police station for two days—on March 22 and 24— the concerned police told TNM that Gokul was released within a day.
Denying the bribery allegations, a police officer said, “We have never spoken to Mr Prasanna. We have only sent a notice to him stating that he must appear before the police with the child for an inquiry since a complaint has been filed against him by his wife.”