Yes, it may sound surprising, but an Indian-origin man was the first to come up with the idea of Facebook, the app that keeps us all hooked to our phones all day long.

Facebook was brainchild of this Indian-origin man

Back in 2004, Indian-origin Harvard student Divya Narendra, along with the Winklevoss twins, dragged Mark Zuckerberg to court for alleged intellectual property infringement.

Shocking story behind the stolen project

Divya Narendra and his colleagues developed the technology behind what we recognize as Facebook now, but never got credit for their contributions. While Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, Narendra was the one who came up with the idea and accused him of betrayal.

Divya Narendra, the elder son of Indian expatriates who immigrated to America, attended the prestigious Harvard University. In December 2002, two years before Facebook came into existence, Divya had thought of a "social network to connect fellow Harvard students." He discussed this idea with two of his close friends, Cameron and Tyler, who came on board immediately. The trio decided to call it 'Harvard Connection' (now known as ConnectU).

With the idea, Divya approached Harvard senior Sanjay Mavinkurve, the first person to write a program for the social network. But after Sanjay graduated, he left, leaving the project incomplete. Weeks later, Divya and the Winklevoss brothers approached another friend, Victor Gao, who suggested Mark Zuckerberg's name.

Mark Zuckerberg's betrayal

In November 2003, Mark Zuckerberg said yes to Divya's social networking idea. By this time, much of the coding work was done. Divya shared the project details and confidential codes with Mark and went to meet him at Kirkland House.

Mark, the new partner in the unfinished project, received private server locations and the password for the HarvardConnection website and code. However, things took a shocking turn when Mark reportedly started cutting contacts and meetings. A few weeks later, Divya Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers went to his dorm room, where they claimed to see a big white board with "multiple lines of code under the heading Harvard Connection."

According to reports, on January 8, 2004, Zuckerberg emailed Divya to say he was busy that week but had "made some key changes which seemed to be working great" on his computer. He decided on a date, January 13, 2004, to discuss the site.

On January 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered thefacebook.com, the domain name which eventually became Facebook. A month later, he launched the website, which requires a harvard.edu email address to register.

Zuckerberg sued for "stealing" the idea of Facebook

On February 6, Divya Narendra first found out about thefacebook, after a buzz around the campus regarding a "new social networking website to connect fellow Harvard students". They finally sued Zuckerberg for "stealing" their idea.

The case dragged on for four years, during which Facebook established a presence on six continents. According to reports, Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and his brother Tyler Winklevoss walked away from the court with a cash/stock settlement, estimated to be worth over $100 million today, following Facebook's IPO. That year, the words, "You stole our idea," echoed at a distance.

Divya Narendra was paid the settlement and made a part-owner of Facebook with a small percentage of the company's shares.