Ex-Paytm vice-president gets bail in extortion case

NOIDA: Former Paytm

vice-president

Sonia Dhawan was granted

bail

by the

Allahabad high court

and released from jail about four days ago.


The development comes almost five months after Sonia was arrested, along with two others, for allegedly trying to blackmail Paytm founder Vijay Sharma. With this, all four accused, including another Paytm employee Devendra Kumar, are out of jail.

Rohit Chomal — the prime accused who allegedly made the extortion calls — had earlier got a stay on his arrest. The court allowed Sonia to be released on bail after executing a personal bond and on four conditions.

The conditions require Sonia not to tamper with evidence during the trial, not “pressurise or intimidate” the prosecution witnesses, appear before the trial court on the date fixed and not commit any offence.

In the high court, Sonia claimed innocence and laid stress on the fact that there was no “concrete proof” against her. She also argued that there was no evidence that she sourced any data from the company.

Though the additional government lawyer opposed the bail plea, the court noted in its order, dated March 5, that he had not disputed the facts mentioned by Soniya.

“Without entering into merit of the case but considering the facts and circumstances, nature of accusation and severity of punishment in case of conviction and the nature of supporting evidence… the applicant is entitled to be released on bail,” the court of Justice Arvind Kumar Mishra said in its order.

While her husband Roopak Jain was released from jail on February 18, Sonia’s bail was rejected twice by the Surajpur court in December and February.