Senior corporate communication executive at Paytm held for alleged extortion of Paytm founder

 23rd October 2018    PR News 
 Paarul Chand

In a swift-moving development, a senior woman corporate communication professional at Paytm was taken into police custody this week by the Noida Police for alleged extortion. The person in question was held by the police along with her husband and another employee of the Paytm from the administration department. The police said they are still looking for a fourth person in this matter who actually made the threatening calls and may have given a false name. News reports say that it was this missing person that alleged the involvement of Paytm executives in the attempt to extort money.

The arrests have taken place, according to extensive news reports in today's newspapers, after an attempt was made to extort the founder of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, of Rs. 20 crore rupees in return for not revealing stolen data in the public domain, including personal data of the founder.

After a police complaint was filed by Paytm, the police swung into quick action and took 3 people including two Paytm executives into police custody. 

Soon after the news of the arrest broke, Paytm issued a statement  saying they support their colleagues in this matter. However, today a revised statement has been issued saying, "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 & most impenetrable levels of security. At this point, the law enforcement authorities are investigating this matter and we would like to respect the police investigation, and not comment further until the results of such investigation are known."

The arrests have come less than two months after Berkshire Hathaway Inc picked up a stake for 300 million US dollars in One97 Communication Ltd the parent company of Paytm, making it Berkshire's first investment in India.