There may be more to Paytm blackmailing saga than meets the eye. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of India's largest e-wallet firm, said he believes his former secretary and corporate communications head Sonia Dhawan was used as a conduit of someone else's bigger plan. Sonia, her husband Rupak Jain, and another employee of Paytm administration department, Devendra Kumar, were sent to a 14-day judicial remand for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from the Paytm founder and his brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma. The fourth accused, Rohit Chomal, who allegedly made the extortion calls, is on the run.
Sonia Dhawan allegedly hatched a plan to extort Rs 20 crore from the Paytm boss by threatening to leak his stolen personal data. Dhawan, a close confidant of Paytm chief, is accused of stealing 'personal data' from Sharma's laptop, phone and office desktop. During her ten-year stint with Paytm, Dhawan started off as secretary and went on to head the corporate communications of the company.
But Sharma said he is shocked and surprised at the recent turn of events. "I don't know how many more people were involved in this sad conspiracy. I am shocked and surprised at things that happened and some claims or theories being pitched. I am sure with support of police and everyone involved we will uncover the details soon," Sharma told The Economic Times. According to Noida Police, it was her constant advice to "just pay up" the extortion money that raised Sharma's suspicion.
Meanwhile, Dhawan's lawyer said that she's being framed due to "rivalry inside the company" and jealousy because of her promotion to vice president about a month ago. "The plot began after Dhawan was promoted as vice president of Paytm a month ago... There could be people around in the company or some (Sharma) family members who would not be happy about it," said Prashant Tripathi, Dhawan's advocate.
Police had earlier said that Sonia Dhawan was planning to buy a property in the Delhi-NCR area for herself. However, her lawyer told the daily that a person who is earning in lakhs and crores in equity would not get into this to buy a house. "She could simply sell her equity to buy one," the lawyer added.
On September 22, Dhawan had also filed an FIR alleging that she had got an extortion call for Rs 5 crore threatening harm to her family if she didn't pay up. "She is herself a victim of a similar phone call. Police did not take any action on her complaint and just lodged a non-cognisable report," her lawyer said.