Former Attorney General of India and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi has called for a forensic investigation into the cash-at-home scam and said there is a need to streamline the system of disciplinary action against judges instead of the current rule of impeachment. The only constitutional action against judges, impeachment, is so complicated that in the last 75 years, no judge has been impeached, despite three or four attempts, he told NDTV in an exclusive interview. 

Calling the incident a “huge dent in the heart of judicial dispensation system,” he said if the people see “this kind of thing and if the judge is guilty, action should be taken at the earliest”. 

“There must be a better system for disciplinary action,” Mr Rohatgi said. “Today, the only action under constitution is impeachment. Impeachment is so laborious, complex and difficult that no impeachment has taken place in 75 years,” he said, while discussing the case of Justice Yashwant Varma, the sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, from whose house a stack of partially burnt currency notes were recovered on March 14, the night of Holi. 

The recovery was made by the fire department, which was called in to douse a fire at the Delhi bungalow of the judge.   

Along with it, Mr Rohatgi also questioned the Supreme Court’s decision to order an internal investigation into the matter. 

There is a need for a police investigation, forensic investigation. large number of VCDs, CCTV footage. This evidence should be collated to get at the bottom of the issue, he added. 

The senior advocate also questioned the current system of selection of judges through a collegium.

“The old debate on the manner of appointment of judges and the manner of disciplinary proceedings against judges has to be relooked at,” he said. 

Calling the collegium is “absolutely unsatisfactory and opaque”, he said the Supreme Court has interpreted the constitution “somewhat selectively”.

“The attempt to bring in sunlight 10 years ago was turned down by the court. If the NJC (National Judicial Commission) was bad, we can have some via media, some sunlight, some outsiders, who have a committee which should recommend judges and there should not be only “judges selecting judges,” he added.  

Justice Varma was moved to the Delhi High Court from the Allahabad High Court in 2021. Today, the Supreme Court said it has recommended his transfer back to the parent court – a decision that has also been taken apart by critics. The top court’s statement that the transfer has nothing to do with the discovery of the burnt currency has also been questioned.

“I never understood this statement (of the Supreme Court) that this transfer has nothing to do with the cash scam. According to me, it is because of the cash scam that he is proposed to be transferred,” Mr Rohatgi said. “We should come to the bottom of the issue — whether the judge is delinquent, is he guilty of moral turpitude or he is not and his reputation is being blackened,” he added.  

Former Solicitor General Harish Salve said any transfer should be put on hold till the matter is investigated.  “Because if he (Justice Varma) was being transferred not because of this but because of other administrative reasons, the two issues have got joined at the hip. If the allegations against him are false, it is very unfair to him to transfer him and if they are true, then a transfer is too little,” he said.

A co-founder of a multi-billion dollar company, Prasanna Sankar, has accused his estranged wife of harassment amid a divorce and a bitter custody battle of their son. He also claimed that the Chennai police are trying to extort him of Rs 25 lakh as they are allegedly probing a “kidnap” complaint filed by his wife, Dhivya.

In a series of posts on X on Sunday evening, Sankar – the co-founder of Rippling, an HR-tech startup – who has now left the company, claimed that he was “on the run” from Chennai law enforcement after his estranged wife filed a complaint alleging that he “kidnapped” their son. However, he said, that the cops are “illegally without any FIR” tracking his cell phone location, car, UPI, and IP address.

Techie’s allegations

Sankar claimed that his wife was having an affair, following which they had been going through a divorce. They were negotiating the terms of the amount he had to pay her, over which she was unhappy, he claimed.

“She decided to instead file a fake police complaint against me saying I hit her. Later, she made further fake complaints that I raped her (1 mo after the alleged rape). That i circulated her nude videos. etc. Singapore police have investigated these allegations, found them baseless and have cleared me from all charges,” Sankar wrote.

The tech entrepreneur alleged that his wife “abducted” their nine-year-old son to the US, forcing him to file an international child abduction case. He claimed that the US court ruled in his favour, leading to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two parties. Under the terms of the agreement, Sankar had to pay his wife around Rs 9 crore and Rs 4.3 lakh per month and share a joint custody of their son.

Photo Credit: Image credit: x.com/myprasanna

Following this, Dhivya negotiated with him to come to Chennai and share their son’s custody – which did happen for some time, he claimed.

However, tensions escalated between the two when his wife refused to comply with the MoU – especially over depositing their child’s passport in a shared locker.

“She started claiming that the MOU is not valid and she wants more and will go to the US again to file a divorce, Sankar said.

This resulted in a further legal battle with Sankar approaching the courts saying he will only share the custody of their son after the passport is deposited in the locker. “She did not attend the courts. Instead she showed up to my hotel at 10 PM in the night and calls my son to the lobby for 10 minutes luring him which I stopped. She then chose to call the police and filed a kidnapping complaint against me,” he said.

Fearing wrongful arrest, the techie fled with his son as the police knocked on their door.

According to Sankar, he even provided the police proof that his son was safe and “happy”, but the police continued to search for him. “The cops were still trying to locate me to my surprise. They hit my mom’s house and asked for me,” he wrote on X.

The techie also claimed that the police detained his friend, Gokul – who helped pick up the child from his estranged wife – without a warrant.

“Last 3 days he is in custody without any FIR. They are telling him if I don’t surrender he’d be harassed. They have not produced him in front of a magistrate. Instead, every morning they call him to the station and make him sit till night and let him go. More recently, the threat is, that if I do not remove my Twitter posts – he’d be in trouble. They have told him to tell him, they will find me and make me face the consequences of going to the media,” Sankar wrote.

He also claimed that the police seized the phone of a caretaker he had paid Rs 200 via UPI and raided an Airbnb where he stayed. “Luckily got out before,” he said.

“Police and my wife will be conducting a joint press meet soon to accuse me of many crimes. They’ve also asked my friend Gokul to sign saying my social media tweets are false. To all supporters – to be clear. I’m feeling the most alive right now and it’s great. I built an empire from nothing. I can handle this even if a state is on the other side. I’m a survivor not a victim,” Sankar wrote.

My name is Prasanna, who previously founded Rippling (worth $10B); I’m going through a divorce. I’m now on the run from the Chennai police hiding outside of Tamil Nadu. This is my story.

— Prasanna S (@myprasanna) March 23, 2025

Sankar, then, accused the Chennai police of trying to extort him of Rs 25 lakh in order to release Gokul.

“The Thirumangalam, Chennai police station is harassing me for money knowing that I’m a successful founder. The AC and the SI have asked me for 25L to release my friend who has been in custody. Please RT for support,” he wrote in a post on X.

Do I know any media people? The Thirumangalam, Chennai police station is harassing me for money knowing that I’m a successful founder. The AC and the SI have asked me for 25L to release my friend who has been in custody. Please RT for support. @CMOTamilnadu @PMOIndia

— Prasanna S (@myprasanna) March 22, 2025

A top police official in Chennai has also denied Sankar’s allegations, calling them “baseless”, local media reported.

What techie’s wife claimed

According to local media reports, Dhivya, in her complaint, accused Sankar of “wrongdoing” and said their son was forcibly taken away from her and never returned.

The woman claimed that she and her son are citizens of the US. They returned to India earlier this month, following which Sankar took their son away from her, she reportedly said. “We returned to India and I thought at least now my son and I could live peacefully but he is not allowing that too,” she said.

She even reportedly called him a “sex predator”, claiming that he used to “secretly record women” for which he was arrested in Singapore and later released. 

Reports also suggested that Dhivya accused Sankar of transferring their matrimonial assets to his father’s name to evade taxes. According to her, Sankar’s father transferred these assets to his brother in Thailand. She further reportedly alleged that the techie “threatened” her into signing documents that prevented her from reporting tax crimes in the US.

Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, dubbed the “anti-ageing millionaire”, has been accused of using nondisclosure agreements to silence employees at his startup Blueprint about his bizarre behaviour.

Under the agreement, the workers had to attest that they were okay with him wearing “little and sometimes no clothing/no underwear” and with hearing “discussions of sexual activities, including erections”, according to a New York Times report, which was published last week, nearly a month after Mr Johnson accused the American newspaper of preparing to publish a “hit piece” about him.

The workers also had to agree that the 47-year-old’s behaviour was not “unwelcome, offensive, humiliating, hostile, triggering, unprofessional or abusive”, the report said.

Mr Johnson, however, said last month the opt-in agreement was “fair to all concerned and is in everyone’s best interest.”

What NYT Report Said About Bryan Johnson

The report said the Blueprint employment agreement with confidentiality terms was 20 pages long and included dozens of restrictions.

The 20-page agreement said the workers must keep confidential “any nonpublic information regarding Bryan’s home, office, personal effects in his home or office, any spaces rented or owned by Bryan, any vehicles/planes/automobiles/boats/other methods of transportation that are not publicly accessible, or areas of his home or such space that are not publicly accessible”.

Bryan Johnson frequently walked around with “little clothing” on and sometimes flirted with Blueprint’s largely female staff, the news outlet, which interviewed 30 people, said. But because of the opt-in agreement, no one was able to complain.

He also made millions from selling his payments firm Braintree to PayPal in 2013, and started investing the amount in his anti-ageing experiments. He then divorced his wife, hired prostitutes and took drugs like acid, Ibogaine and DMT, the report said.

What Bryan Johnson Said On NYT Report

Bryan Johnson, whose “Project Blueprint” inspired the Netflix documentary “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever”, said the New York Times “tried to come” for him but “missed”.

“What was meant to be a takedown ended up reading like a profile piece,” he posted on X on Friday, hours after the report was published.

“They spent a year digging, talked to 30 people, including former fired employees, propped up my ex as their star witness (who tried to extract $9 million from me and failed) And still came up empty. It was only by contorting and twisting facts to fit a narrative that they barely had enough to publish,” he said as he “thanked” NYT for the coverage.

The New York Times tried to come for me and missed.

What was meant to be a takedown ended up reading like a profile piece.
+ they spent a year digging
+ talked to 30 people, incl former fired employees
+ propped up my ex as their star witness (who tried to extract $9 million… pic.twitter.com/Q4OAM7GHPT

— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) March 21, 2025

Last month, Mr Johnson also publicly responded to the “fact-checking” questions that were mailed to him by the NYT reporter before publishing the story.

Speaking about the opt-in agreement at Blueprint, he said, “I post nudes on social media. I track my nighttime erections. My team openly discusses my semen health. We make dank memes. Rather than letting people walk in blind, we disclose this upfront, in writing, so there are no surprises.”

“This isn’t coercion; it’s transparency. This practice is fair to all concerned and is in everyone’s best interest. If someone doesn’t align with our culture, they are free to work elsewhere. No one is forced to sign anything. The opt-in agreement exists to ensure that people understand and consent to the environment. It eliminates ambiguity and prevents misunderstandings,” he added.

Question:
“My reporting shows that you have used confidentiality agreements extensively in your personal life and also at your businesses, with at least more than two dozen people over the last ten years. The agreements I have seen over the years have grown to be much longer and…

— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) February 24, 2025

Mr Johnson, who reportedly spends $2 million every year to reverse his age, also said the confidentiality agreements are “standard and normal”. 

“I would be surprised if you didn’t sign one as a condition of employment at The New York Times. On a personal level, my life is under constant scrutiny. These agreements try to create clear boundaries and expectations, so that trust isn’t left to chance,” he said.

“Over time, our agreements have evolved, just like everything else I iterate & improve upon. The goal is precision. Clarity eliminates confusion. People know where they stand, and that’s a win for everyone,” Mr Johnson added.