In a new twist in the Paytm extortion saga, some new details have emerged that suggest Paytm promoters were allegedly trying to frame Sonia Dhawan, secretary of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, as she had not "agreed to their demand of selling her stake" in the company. As per the latest updates, Sonia Dhawan's lawyer Prashant Tripathi has accused Vijay Shekhar Sharma of revealing Sonia Dhawan's identity, saying that she was not the one who received the money from him. Tripathi also alleged that like Sharma, Sonia and her husband, Rupak Jain, had received a similar extortion call on September 22.

"There was an extortion call for Rs 5 crore. The caller threatened to harm the family if the demand wasn't met," Tripathi told MoneyControl, adding that the company promoters were asking her to sell her stake. He also accused the company of changing stance, saying there's no clarity as to whose data -- Paytm or Vijay Shekhar Sharma's personal data -- was being exposed, added the portal.

As per police, Sonia had told Sharma that she was planning a property in the Delhi-NCR area for herself. "When she did not see her communication getting materialised she perhaps opted for this route to make quick money," the police told news agency PTI. At first, first extortion calls were made to the Paytm founder's brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma in September.

The accused, Rohit Chomal, initially asked for Rs 30 crore but after negotiations he came down to Rs 19 crore. A few more rounds of phone calls, and Chomal agreed to accept Rs 10 crore. The accused was initially asking Sharma to send money through Hawala network. But Vijay Shekhar Sharma was successful in transferring Rs 2.67 lakh through online transaction after much convincing, which exposed all the call records between Sonia Dhawan and other accused.

Sonia Dhawan holds ESOP (employee stock option plans) worth 0.004 per cent and 0.02 per cent in parent company One97 Communication and Paytm E-commerce Pvt Ltd, respectively, suggest media reports. Sharma had earlier revealed that Sonia joined Paytm in 2010 when she was offered around Rs 7 lakh annual package. Her annual package has now increased to over Rs 70 lakh per annum. On top of that, she owned equity shares worth Rs 10 crore in the company.

According to filings with Registrar of Companies, Dhawan owned 1,400 vested shares in Paytm-owner One 97 Communications as on March 2017, which at the latest share price of Rs 12,797 would have been worth Rs 1.79 crore. But she is not listed in the company's latest filing of shareholders, suggesting she may have sold her vested shares.

Three persons, Sonia Dhawan (32), her husband Rupak Jain (38) and another company employee Devendra Kumar (30), were arrested on Monday for allegedly stealing personal information and confidential data of Paytm co-founder Sharma and threatening to leak it. The accused have now been sent to 14-day judicial custody by the magistrate court in Gautam Buddh Nagar. Their fourth associate, Rohit Chomal, who lives in Kolkata and made extortion calls from there, is absconding.

Edited by Manoj Sharma