Who is Sonia Dhawan? Her journey at Paytm, whopping salary and equity; Here's all you need to know

As the extortion saga of digital wallet firm Paytm is all over the place, some shocking revelations and facts have come forward as the police started digging into the entire episode.

Sonia and her team demanded extortion of Rs 30 crore from Paytm founder’s brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma in September. (Image: Sonia Dhawan/ Facebook Page)

Paytm Extortion Case: As the extortion saga of digital wallet firm Paytm is all over the place, some shocking revelations and facts have come forward as the police started digging into the entire episode. It all started with two of company’ employees getting arrested for blackmailing and making extortion bid on the e-wallet giant's founder Vijay Shekar Sharma, earlier this week. The Noida Police, on October 22, arrested the Paytm CEO's secretary Sonia Dhawan (32), her husband Roopak Jain (38) and another company employee Devendra Kumar (30) for allegedly stealing personal information and confidential data from Sharma’s personal laptop and later threatened to leak it. Even the troop had a fourth associate, Rohit Chomal, who made the extortion calls, is on the run. Allegedly, Sonia and her team demanded extortion of Rs 30 crore from Paytm founder’s brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma in September. However, the amount came down to Rs 19 crore after multiple rounds of negotiations. According to news agency PTI, the accused had even got Rs 2.67 lakh as initial instalments by Sharma, who then approached police and got an FIR registered. Here are 10 things you need to know about Sonia Dhawan, the prime accused in Paytm’s extortion case: 1. According to her LinkedIn profile, Sonia joined the digital payments firm as Sharma’s secretary back in 2010 and was later promoted as Vice President - Corporate Communications / Public Relations. 2. Before joining Paytm, Sonia has worked as Business Operations Manager and Corporate Officer in Times Internet and Cairn India. 3. Sharma had earlier revealed that Sonia joined Paytm in 2010 when she was offered an annual package of around Rs 7 lakh annual. As of today, her annual package has increased to as much as around Rs 70 lakh per annum. 4. As per media reports, Sonia also owned equity shares worth Rs 10 crore in the company along with minimal percentage of ESOP (employee stock option plans) in parent company One97 Communication and Paytm E-commerce Pvt Ltd. 5. A recent report by Hindustan Times stated that family members of Sonia claim that she has always given her 100 per cent to the company and was prime face of Paytm after Sharma. They also said that Sonia had a substantial upward graph in the company and used to receive awards on behalf of the company. The family also suspects involvement of a professional rival who may have framed her. 6. In her defence, Sonia counter-accused the Paytm chief and said that it was a conspiracy against her. However, police report suggests that Sonia allegedly conspired to blackmail the company’s founder around two months ago, after her request for Rs 4 crore to buy a home was ignored. Police also said that the accused had confidential details pertaining to the company and its founder. 7. Recently, Sonia's lawyer has claimed that she herself had received a call from an unknown number and the caller had demanded an as-yet-unknown sum of money. The caller had also allegedly threatened to kill Sonia if she did not pay the ransom. Even the Police have confirmed the statement as Sonia and her husband had filed a formal complaint regarding the same on September 22. 8. According to police, Sonia had around 10 months ago conveyed to her boss that she wanted to buy a property for herself in the Delhi NCR region. The judicial magistrate on Tuesday denied bail to the three accused and remanded them to 14-day judicial custody. 9. The police have also seized from Sonia’s Noida residence the print outs of WhatsApp chats that were made between the accused and the Sharma brothers besides four mobile phones used in the crime. 10. Noida Police is now in a lookout for Rohit who is absconding since the extortion case came to light. "We are in touch with the Kolkata Police and Rohit is our main target now. We are hopeful of getting him under arrest in the next few days," the police official told PTI.