Rejection of her request for Rs 4 crore to buy a home prompted Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's secretary Sonia Dhawan to resort to blackmailing her boss, according to Noida police, The Indian Express reported.

According to the report, Sonia revealed to the police that she had made the request around two months ago. “Around two months ago, she asked her bosses for financial help to buy a flat. But they ignored it, which could have been a trigger,” SSP Ajay Pal Sharma was quoted as saying in the report.

Sonia also harbored ambitions of starting her own firm after observing the growth of Paytm. “It appears she had inside details on how the company grew over the years. She had obtained it over a year ago with Devendra’s help. It seems she also wanted to start her own company using the information,” SHO Manoj Pant was quoted as saying in the report.

Currently the police have nabbed three of the accused including Sonia Dhawan. The other two arrested are her husband Rupak Jain, a property dealer and Devendra Kumar, an employee with Paytm’s administration department.

A fourth accused, identified as Rohit Chomal, is still at large. “He was hired after the trio allegedly assured him of 20 percent of the extortion amount of Rs 10 crore… the phone numbers were provided to him by Devendra, who also visited Kolkata several times over the last month,” the SSP was quoted saying in the report.

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First Published:Oct 24, 2018 9:39 AM IST