Paytm data theft accused Sonia Dhawan rejoins company

In a move that is bound to raise a few eyebrows, former Paytm executive and the prime accused in an alleged extortion case involving the company’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has staged a comeback by joining Paytm First Games, according to a statement by the company on Friday.

As per an Economic Times report, Sonia Dhawan was seen in the Paytm head office premises, but the company vehemently refuted all the rumours of her rejoining the organisation, and issued a statement saying, “no accused is joining back the company till the time the court matter is concluded."

On October 22, she was arrested after Ajay Shekhar Sharma, senior vice-president of the company and brother of founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, lodged an FIR against her, accusing her of blackmailing. She was charged with stealing private data from the company. Allegedly, she and her husband Rupak Jain demanded 10 crore initially, and when their demand was not met, they increased the amount to 20 crore.

Dhawan in her plea claimed innocence and laid stress on the fact that there is nothing concrete emerged against her and it cannot be said that the applicant ever indulged in any illegal activity secretly obtaining any data from the laptop of any device of the informant or his company and she never blackmailed as such”. Her mother Rama Dhawan called it a 'witch hunt' and blamed that a friction between her daughter and Vijay was the cause of her downfall.

In June, Dhawan joined as the director of corporate communications at Sheroes, an online community and job portal for women, where Paytm’s chief Sharma is an investor and a board member.

“We are inducting new leaders who will help us to achieve the milestones and become the favorite gaming destination,” Sudhanshu Gupta, COO of Paytm First Games said in a statement on Friday.