Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the CEO of India’s digital payment company Paytm, was reportedly blackmailed by his own employees who were trying to extort a sum of Rs 20 crores from him. Sonia Dhawan had allegedly planned the crime along with the other men namely Devender Kumar, her husband Rupak Jain, a colleague, and a property dealer.

According to reports, four employees, including his long-time female secretary, stole some of his personal data and threatened to leak it if they weren’t paid the money. The three employees of the Noida-headquartered e-commerce and wallet firm were arrested by a team from the Sector 20 police station, while the fourth accused in the case is still at large, reports PTI.

Noida: 3 Paytm employees were arrested y’day for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 Crore from owner Vijay Sharma. Police say “They had stolen some data, blackmailed him&demanded Rs 20 Crore for not leaking it. They’ve been arrested. Data&their modus operandi is being investigated” pic.twitter.com/12mVfFK55N

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 22, 2018

Thus far, three of the accused have been arrested on Monday. The three have been charged with theft, extortion, cheating, criminal breach of trust and conspiracy. They have also been charged under the Information Technology Act. Meanwhile, the fourth accused is still absconding.

The company had also released a statement shedding light on the matter:

“The employee along with two other accomplices attempted to extort money from Vijay Shekhar Sharma on the pretext of leaking his personal data. We are standing by our colleagues till the police enquiry reaches its meaningful conclusion.”