Zoho Corp CEO Sridhar Vembu trashes estranged wife's allegations

New Delhi: Zoho Corp founder and chief executive Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday took to Twitter to trash his estranged wife's allegations, saying it is "complete fiction" that he abandoned her and his kid.

His wife, Pramila Srinivasan in a divorce case in California, where they lived together for years, claimed that Vembu deliberately got rid of a big chunk of his Zoho stake in a complex transaction that moved Zoho's intellectual property to India and eventually placed the majority of the shares with his sister and her husband, without ever telling her.

In her complaint with the court, Pramila reportedly stated that her husband had "abandoned" her and their "son with special needs" in the US in 2020.

However, Vembu in a series of tweets denied all allegations.

Calling the allegations a "vicious personal attack and slander" on his character, he said his personal life, in contrast to his business life, has been a long tragedy.

He said never transferred shares in the company to anyone else. "I lived in the US for the first 24 years of our 27-year history and much of what constitutes the company was built in India. That is reflected in the ownership." Denying abandoning his kid, he blamed his uncle for the problems.

"It is complete fiction to say I financially abandoned Pramila and my son. They enjoy a far richer life than I do and I have supported them fully. My US salary for the last three years has been with her, and I gave our house to her. Her foundation also is supported by Zoho," he said.

"All of this mess was caused by my uncle Ram (my father’s younger brother) living in the US, who I gave shelter to due to his terminal cancer, taking out his own long-running frustrations with my father. He is doing that by spreading malicious rumours about me and my siblings." He said his uncle Ram from Alaska was estranged from his father for decades and the family had little or no communication until he invited him to live with them in California a few years ago, purely on compassionate grounds due to his terminal cancer.

"My uncle described my father, his own elder brother; under oath as "my brother could not rub two nickels together" and that is how low he can get. Yes my father was poor but he is a proud man who never took anyone's handout. My uncle was never part of our lives for decades," he said.

"Sadly Pramila has chosen to trust my uncle Ram who still lives rent free at our home, due to her own frustration that she feels I abandoned the fight on autism. All I can say is that if I am not serving the causes and people I serve now, my will to live would have left me." Alleging that his uncle Ram's falsehoods added a messy legal dimension, he said he always supported his wife and son and will continue to support them as long as he lives.

"I have endured vicious personal attacks before and I will endure this one too. I will continue to build institutions and capabilities in rural India, my only remaining purpose in life. My prayer is that someday my beloved son will join me here," he said.

Giving details of troubles in the family, he said his wife Pramila and he were in this fight against autism for over 15 years.

"She is a super mom and her passionate cause is curing our son of autism. I worked hard along with her. To ensure his safety I also took some of his treatments so I could know what they did to him," he said.

"As our son got older (24 today) I felt the endless treatments he was under were not helping much and he would be better off in rural India, closer to loving people and helping to lift up people. She felt I was giving up. Our marriage collapsed under that stress." "Unfortunately the end of our marriage brought a new conflict. She is making unfounded allegations in court about my ownership interest in Zoho Corp and she has chosen to go to the press too. The matter is in court in the US, my filings are public," he added.