WebEngage CEO Avlesh Singh responds to sexual harassment complaint with his version of story

Two days after a woman reported mental and emotional harassment by her former boss calling him a sexual predator, he has shared his side of the story, making this a classic case of ‘he said, she said.’

In a Medium post, the chosen medium of the complainant, WebEngage’s co-founder and CEO, Avlesh Singh has defended himself against what he calls “false allegations” made by his former employee.

My response to the allegations made yesterday on a Medium posthttps://t.co/oPFmBAeAce

— Avlesh Singh (@avlesh) March 18, 2019

The woman claimed that Singh has had multiple affairs in the office. In her case, he exploited her emotional vulnerability to enter into a relationship without telling her the truth about his situation with his wife and later tortured her with threats and stalker(ish) behavior when she had filed a complaint.

Singh calls this a tale of blatant lies and goes on to substantiate his own theory with a thread of his own emails. He accepts that getting into a relationship with her was a fault, but said that it was because of both their emotional conditions specifically talking about the fact that she was going through her second divorce at that time.

This divorce he goes on to claim was because of a third relationship she had with another startup co-founder.

The realization that he should end the relationship came when she apparently paid a maid to work at his house and keep a tab on him and his family, and report to her regarding his daily schedule and relationship that he shares with his wife and kid.

About the allegation made by the complainant around him forcefully taking back the complaint after creating significant pressure on her to meet him, Singh said no such thing happened.

“I tried to reach out to her. I was emotionally shattered by the extreme step she took and wanted to find out why would she do such a thing,” he says in the Medium post explaining why he wanted to meet her. He clarifies that he put no pressure on her to retract the complaint.

Further, he shared a series of e-mails from the complainant sent to him during the entire course of the relationship, complaint proceedings, and after the closure of the case. These emails were of her talking about her feelings and relationship romantically,

The post-closure matter of him giving their relationship another try but ending it again was explained as a phase of uncertainty in his mind where he was unsure whether he should get into a relationship with her again or not. Finally, he decided to end it, but not abruptly.

He claims that the complainant after this showcased “passive aggressive behaviour” pointing out at him on social media and threatening him with vengeance.

Another allegation made by the complainant said that he used to proof-read the Glassdoor reviews by employees before letting them go online. Singh called her foolish for saying so because an employer cannot edit or delete the comment.

Perhaps, Singh himself needs to understand the difference between proofreading and editing.