This Indian techie accused of emotional manipulation using ‘Operation Sindoor’ excuse: 'The drone was...'

Indian technology professional Soham Parekh, who has been at the centre of controversy for working part-time at multiple Silicon Valley companies, emotionally influenced Leaping AI co-founder Arkady Telegin by referring to the India-Pakistan military conflict in May, Telegin has claimed.

Telegin, the co-founder of Leaping AI, claimed on X that days after the Indian technology expert admitted to working at multiple companies simultaneously without anyone knowing.

What exactly happened?

Telegin claimed that Parekh misled him and forced him to pretend to be in a "conflict" zone during the "India-Pakistan conflict" when in fact he was in Mumbai during that time. The co-founder of the US-based startup alleged that the tech expert "blamed" him for taking too much time to complete the work.

Telegin shared a screenshot of his conversation with Soham Parekh

Telegin wrote in a post on X along with a screenshot of his chat with Parekh, "When India-Pakistan talks were going on, Soham blamed me for the slow pace in PR (a step done in coding by coders) while he was in Mumbai. The next person should appoint him to the role of chief intelligence officer."

Telegin claimed that this conversation with Parekh was in May when the military standoff between India and Pakistan was going on after New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor. India's precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir resulted in Islamabad launching a barrage of missiles and drones across the international border and the Line of Control. Pakistan targeted Indian military installations and civilian areas.

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July 2, 2025

Parekh sent a message to Telegin, claiming, "The drone was shot down 10 minutes away". When Telegin inquired about Parekh's well-being, Parekh lied that a building near his home was damaged in the attack.

Working for 34 startups

Mixpanel's former CEO Suhail Doshi had earlier posted on X alleging that Parekh was employed by "34 startups at the same time" and that he had defrauded Y Combinator-backed firms. Y Combinator-backed firms are startups that receive money, support and advice from startup accelerators to grow their businesses.

Doshi further said that he sacked Parekh within a week after discovering the overlapping employment.

Other founders also backed Doshi's warning, leading one to drop Parekh's suit last week, while another revealed that he had recently interviewed him, which revealed he is involved in multiple companies.

Parekh responded to the allegations during an interview on tech show TBPN and openly acknowledged the truth behind the accusations.

"It's true," he admitted, adding, "I'm not proud of what I've done. But, you know, basically financial circumstances. Nobody likes working 140 hours a week, right? But I had to do it out of compulsion. I was in extremely dire financial circumstances."

He clarified that he handled all the tasks assigned to him, without the help of other engineers or AI tools.

Soham Parekh's new job at Darwin

India-based technology expert Soham Parekh has now announced that he is joining AI firm, Darwin, a new startup based in San Francisco, US.

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