Police continue hunt for fourth accused

NOIDA: Four days after three persons, including vice-president of Paytm, were arrested for allegedly trying to extort ₹20 crore from the e-wallet giant’s chief executive officer, police are still clueless about the fourth accused in the case.

Not much is known about Rohit Chomal, the fourth accused in the extortion case who allegedly spoke to both CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and his brother and senior vice-president Ajay Shekhar Sharma, and demanded a ransom of ₹20 crore. Chomal had allegedly claimed that he had in possession of company’s confidential data, and he would leak them if his demands are not met, the police said.

According to the complaint filed by Ajay Shekhar, Chomal allegedly made the phone calls using an international number and tracked his location in Kolkata. “Our surveillance team is currently tracking Rohit Chomal through a few phone numbers, but not much is known yet. We will also be sending a team to Kolkata in the next few days to arrest him. Meanwhile, we have started the process of recording statements from the employees of Paytm for our further investigation,” said Manoj Pant, station house officer, Sector 20 station.

It all began on Monday when Ajay Shekhar approached Sector 20 police station in Noida with a complaint alleging that four persons -- Sonia Dhawan, vice-president and former secretary of Vijay Shekhar, her husband Roopak Jain, Devendra, a senior manager in administration of Paytm, and Rohit Chomal had tried to extort money from the CEO.