Has Senior Executive Sonia Dhawan Rejoined Paytm After Receiving Bail?

Former Paytm executive Sonia Dhawan, who is alleged of trying to blackmail Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is now reportedly back to the company after receiving bail earlier this month.

In response to Inc42‘s query, Paytm spokesperson said, “No accused is joining before the court case is over”.

The news was first reported by ET,  which said that Dhawan has now returned to the company earlier this week, after being in police custody for nearly five months. Prior to her arrest, Dhawan was serving the company as a vice president of communications and public relations. Currently, it is yet to be known if she rejoined the company in the same position.

While Sonia Dhawan was unavailable for comment, multiple Inc42 sources have confirmed that Dhawan has rejoined Paytm. It still unclear if Dhawan has joined back in her earlier position.

Sonia Dhawan was imprisoned in October on allegations of being part of an extortion bid against Sharma. She was granted bail by Allahabad High Court on March 15.

In February, Dhawan had appealed at the Allahabad court for bail after the District and Sessions Court, Surajpur-Noida rejected her bail plea. Dhawan’s husband, Rupak Jain, who was also accused in the case, had received bail by the Allahabad High Court.

While claiming innocence before the high court, Dhawan had stressed on the fact that no concrete evidence had emerged against her and it cannot be said that she ever indulged in any illegal activity or secretly obtained any data from Vijay Shekhar’s laptop and blackmailed him.

The Paytm extortion case came into light on October 22, 2018, when Paytm senior vice president and Vijay’s brother, Ajay Shekhar Sharma, filed a complaint against Sonia Dhawan, Rupak Jain, another Paytm admin staff Devendra Kumar and his friend Rohit Chomal.

He accused that group of stealing personal data of his brother and blackmailing him. The group had allegedly demanded an extortion amount of INR 10 Cr.

Earlier, while speaking to Inc42, the police had claimed that the accused Devendra Kumar had already accepted the crime and has narrated the entire case of how Dhawan master-planned the extortion.