A day after three people, including two Paytm employees, were arrested on Monday, 22 October, for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from the e-wallet giant's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the company assured that its consumer data was safe.
In a statement, Paytm said, “This is a case of personal data theft of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, where three arrests were made yesterday. Paytm would like to reiterate that all our consumer data is protected with the highest and most impenetrable levels of security.”
The trio had threatened to leak the data and misuse the information to cause the firm loss and dent its public image, officials said.
The data in question includes personal data of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, including photos and personal financial information, reported CNN-News18.
Paytm’s Communications Head Among those Arrested
Among those arrested on Monday was Sonia Dhawan, who allegedly masterminded the extortion bid. She is said to be a long-term secretary of Sharma.
According to Dhawan's LinkedIn profile, she was promoted to vice president, corporate communications/public relations at Paytm. Her Twitter bio says she heads communications at Paytm. She had been working with Vijay Shekhar Sharma for 10 years, reported NDTV.
The three employees of the Noida-headquartered e-commerce and e-wallet firm were arrested late on Monday afternoon by a team from the Sector 20 police station, while their fourth accomplice is still at large, a senior official said.
Fourth Accused Had Allegedly Made the Extortion Call
According to the police, apart from Sonia Dhawan, those arrested include her husband Roopak Jain and another Paytm employee Devendra Kumar, who has reportedly been with the company for seven years.
The fourth accused, Rohit Chomal, is a resident of Kolkata and had allegedly made the extortion call to Sharma's brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma. In the first extortion call apparently made on 20 September, Chomal demanded Rs 10 crore as extortion money. Calls were also made to Vijay Shekhar Sharma from a Thailand-based number, reported Moneycontrol.
According to a Business Standard report, Vijay Shekhar Sharma even transferred Rs 200,000 to the extortionist on 15 October.
The owner of Paytm had made a complaint with the police that their employees, a woman and her aides, had stolen some data from the company and were blackmailing. They were demanding Rs 20 crore for not leaking it.Ajay Pal Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar, as quoted by PTI
“Taking immediate action on it, an FIR was registered and three persons, including the woman, arrested. They are being probed about the data and their modus operandi. Police will share the facts as they are unearthed,” Sharma said.
The SSP had said they will seek their custody to interrogate them further and gather more details. Police were not clear as to what kind of data was stolen.
He said that the local police are in touch with their counterparts in Kolkata to track down Chomal.
The FIR was registered at Sector 20 police station and the accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 381 (theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master), 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 420 (cheating), 408 (Criminal breach of trust by clerk or servant) and 120 B (party to a criminal conspiracy).
Charges under the provisions of the Information Technology Act were also been pressed against the accused, the police said.
Earlier, Paytm had confirmed in a statement that the Noida Police had arrested three people in the case of extortion.
“The employee (Sonia Dhawan) along with two other accomplices attempted to extort money from Vijay Shekhar Sharma on the pretext of leaking his personal data. We are standing by our colleagues till the police enquiry reaches its meaningful conclusion,” the company had said.
(With inputs from PTI and Reuters.)
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