Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu calls reports of abandoning his wife, son ‘complete fiction’

The denial came a day after news reports citing his wife Pramila Srinivasan said Vembu abandoned her and their autistic son and was keeping them from receiving a fair share of his wealth.Vembu said the allegations about his ownership interest in Zoho Corp were “unfounded” and that his wife had chosen to go to the press too with it.

As per the reports, in their divorce petition in California, where they resided together, Srinivasan claimed that Vembu deliberately let go of a big chunk of his Zoho stake in a transaction that moved the company’s intellectual property to India and eventually placed the majority of the shares with his sister and her husband, without letting her know.

Vembu stated that nothing of this nature had occurred.

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“I never ever transferred my 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,” he wrote.

Calling it a “vicious personal attack”, he said he had endured such instances in the past and would continue to do so with this instance as well.

“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 tweeted.

Meanwhile, minister of state for electronics & information technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar called the allegations an “undeserved attack” on Vembu. “He is a self-made man who has earned the respect of most people who meet him. I wish him all strength to deal with this challenge…,” he tweeted on Tuesday.