Three employees of digital payments major Paytm, including a woman were arrested in Noida on Monday for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Four employees, masterminded by the woman who is reportedly Vijay’s secretary, stole personal data and confidential information and threatened to leak it, demanding Rs 20 crore in return.

According to a PTI report, these employees allegedly threatened Vijay of misusing the stolen information to cause the firm loss and dent its public image.

The Noida Police has said that an FIR has been lodged against the three employees and the modus operandi and nature of the data stolen is being investigated. The fourth accused is absconding.

“The owner of Paytm made a complaint with the police that his employees, including a woman and stole some data from the company and were blackmailing him. They have been demanding Rs. 20 crore for not leaking the stolen data," Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ajay Pal Sharma said in a video on the Twitter page of Noida police. He further added that while investigation is one, a policy custody remand has been requested for from the authorities to be able to gather more information from the accused through interrogation.

As per a NewsX report, the woman being Sharma’s secretary looked after his personal work. She allegedly took the help of another employee Devendra to steal the confidential data from the company. As per reports, the woman’s husband was also a part of the extortion bid.

A team from the Sector 20 police station arrested three employees, and are on the lookout for the fourth accused, a senior official told PTI. A case has been registered under Sections 381/384/386/420/408/120B of the IT Act.

"Taking immediate action on it, an FIR was registered and three persons, including the woman, arrested. They are being probed about the data and their modus operandi. Police will share the facts as they are unearthed," PTI quotes Vijay as saying.