Sonia Dhawan, former Paytm vice-president and longtime secretary of founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, will likely return to the company. Dhawan was seen inside the Paytm building in Noida along with Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Tuesday, March 26, reliable sources said.
Days after Dhawan got bail from the Allahabad High Court, speculation was rife that she would go back to the payment company. A person close to the development said that an official meeting took place in Paytm's Noida office on Tuesday evening wherein Dhawan's joining was discussed.
This development came months after Dhawan, along with her husband Rupak Jain and an administration resource Devender Kumar, were arrested by the Noida police for allegedly being part of an extortion bid of Rs 20 crore against Sharma. Reports had said that the arrrested persons were in possession of sensitive data, including personal information relating to the firm and the founder. Dhawan spent almost five months in judicial custody. However, reports later said Vijay Shekhar Sharma believed that Dhawan might have been used as a conduit in the whole blackmailing saga.
International Business Times connected to the Chief Operating Officer of Paytm, Sudhanshu Gupta, but he refused to give an update on the matter. An email query to Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma was also not answered at the time of filing the report.
Dhawan was allegedly accused of stealing the data as she had access to Sharma's phone, laptop and desktop. Back in 2018, when police raided the Noida office of the firm to arrest the accused, both Dhawan and Devendra Kumar were at their workstations. In court, Dhawan said she was not guilty, that there was no concrete proof against her, and that there was no proof of her stealing any data from Paytm.
All the four accused including the couple and the other PayTm employee are out of jail. Rohit Chomal, the prime accused who allegedly made extortion calls to Paytm founder's brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma, had earlier got stay on his arrest.
Dhawan owned 1,400 vested shares in Paytm-owner One 97 Communications as on March 2017, which was worth Rs 1.79 crore, PTI reported citing filings with the Registrar of Companies.
