Remember Sonia Dhawan? Paytm top exec jailed on extortion charge likely to be reinstated

In an interesting turn of events, Sonia Dhawan who was under judicial custody for five months for allegedly being a part of an extortion bid against Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is expected to join back the company holding the same position as earlier, according to a person privy to the development.

Dhawan was reintroduced to the senior executives of the company on Tuesday in Paytm's Noida office, according to the source quoted above.

Dhawan, who has been a long time secretary of Sharma, was promoted last year as Vice President of Corporate Communications and public relations.

She was arrested in October along with her husband Rupak Jain and an administration department  resource Devender Kumar and was released on bail by the Allahabad High Court only earlier this month.

Ajay Shekhar Sharma, brother of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, had earlier told Moneycontrol that a person named Rohit Chomwal from Kolkata had tried to extort Rs 20 crore by threatening to leak "some photos and personal financial details" of his brother at the behest of Dhawan.

Chomwal had apparently taken the names of Dhawan, Jain and Kumar as the people behind the plot, which led to their arrest.

Even as Dhawan, Jain and Kumar were arrested, Chomwal had managed to get a stay on his arrest from the Allahabad High Court.

It wasn't immediately clear if Ajay Shekhar Sharma, who filed the case, will also be taking the case back. The company did not respond to email. Dhawan couldn't be reached out to for a comment. Her family did not respond to calls made.

Soon after her arrest, Dhawan's lawyer had alleged that the promoters of Paytm were pressurising her to sell her stake in the company and that she had been framed.

According to data shared by PaperVc with Moneycontrol, Dhawan has employee stock option plans (ESOPs) to the tune of 0.004 percent in One97 Communications and 0.02 percent in Paytm E-commerce Pvt Ltd, the two companies held under the group.

The cumulative value of the shares as per Paytm's current valuation stood around Rs 3.2 crore.

She is expected to have more ESOPs in other group entities.