Paytm boss' woman secretary held for blackmailing

Noida (UP): Two Paytm employees, including a woman, were among three people arrested on Monday for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from the e-wallet giant's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma after threatening to leak stolen personal data and information.

The arrested woman, who allegedly masterminded the extortion bid, is the secretary of Sharma and the trio had threatened to leak the data and misuse the information to cause the firm loss and dent its public image, the police said.

The three employees of the Noida-headquartered e-commerce and wallet firm were arrested late Monday afternoon by a team from the Sector 20 police station, while their fourth accomplice is still at large, a senior official said.

According to the police, those arrested are Sharma's woman secretary (identity withheld), her husband Roopak Jain and another Paytm employee Devnedra Kumar. The fourth accused, Rohit Chomal, is a resident of Kolkata and had allegedly made the extortion call to Sharma's brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma.

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, Senior Superintendent of Police, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ajay Pal Sharma said.

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 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, who allegedly made the extortion call to Sharma's brother.

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 have also been pressed against the accused, the police said.

Consumer data safe: POaytm

When contacted, Paytm affirmd that its consumer data was safe. "This is a case of personal data theft of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, where three arrests were made yesterday," the company said in a statement. "Paytm would like to reiterate that all our consumer data is protected with the highest & most impenetrable levels of security."

The company said it would not comment further, pending the police investigation.