NEW DELHI: Three Paytm employees, including a woman, were arrested in Noida on Monday for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from the e-wallet giant’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. They reportedly threatened to leak stolen personal data and confidential information the firm had collected, the Noida police said. The accused included Sharma’s secretary, who allegedly masterminded the extortion bid, her husband, and Devendra Kumar, an employee with the firm. The fourth accused, Rohit Chomal, a Paytm employee from Kolkata, is yet to be apprehended.
The three arrested persons were nabbed by a team from the Sector 20 police station after the founder of the Noida-headquartered firm complained to the police. An FIR was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 420 and the IT Act, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Sector 20 police station said.
“The owner of Paytm complained to the police, saying employees, including a woman and her aides, had stolen data from the company and were blackmailing him. They demanded `20 crore to keep them from leaking it,” Senior Superintendent of Police of Gautam Buddh Nagar Ajay Pal Sharma said.
The police were not clear as to what kind of data was stolen, but the SSP said the police would seek custody of the accused and interrogate them further to gather the details. “The accused are being probed about the data and their modus.
We will share the facts as they are unearthed.” He added that the local police were in touch with their counterparts in Kolkata to track down Chomal, who allegedly made the extortion call to Sharma’s brother. Paytm confirmed in a statement that the police arrested three people, including one female employee, in a case of extortion.
