Paytm employee allegedly steals data from CEO’s laptop, blackmails him by demanding Rs. 20 crore

The woman employee, who worked as long-time secretary of Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has been identified as Sonia Dhawan.

She had reportedly planned the crime with a colleague Devender Kumar and her husband Rupak.

As per a Hindustan Times report, the woman employee of Paytm founder and chief executive officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who had access to Sharma’s personal laptop, had allegedly stolen the data and was blackmailing him to cough up ₹20 crore, alleged the management of Paytm.

Ajay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm founder’s brother and senior vice-president of the company, told Hindustan Times, “She was working for my brother for nearly 10 years. She had access to his files. She and her husband came up with the plan to steal private and financial information. They roped in a senior manager in the administration section of the company, Devendra Kumar, who then approached one of his acquaintances, Rohit Chomal, a resident of Kolkata, to blackmail us.”

"The first call came on September 20. My brother received a call around 11am and I received one around 4pm. The caller, Chomal, claimed to have access to the data and threatened to leak it if we don’t pay him Rs. 20 crore. After a few more calls, we transferred Rs. 2 lakh on October 15 to the bank account he gave us," Ajay told the newspaper.

"The caller then asked us to keep another Rs. 10 crore ready. We asked him to at least tell us what kind of data he had with him and how he came across it. Chomal then told us how our woman employee, her husband and Devendra had stolen the information and planned the whole thing,” Ajay said.