Secy among 3 employees held for blackmailing Paytm boss
Noida: Three Paytm employees, including a woman, were arrested on Monday for allegedly trying to extort Rs 20 crore from the e-wallet giant’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma after threatening to leak stolen personal data and confidential information, Noida Police said here. The arrested woman, who allegedly masterminded the extortion bid, is the secretary of Sharma and the trio had threatened to leak the data and misuse the information to cause the firm loss and dent its public image, officials said. 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, a senior official said. “The owner of Paytm had made a complaint with the police that their employees, a woman and her aides, had stolen some data from the company and were blackmailing. They were demanding Rs 20 crore for not leaking it,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ajay Pal Sharma said. “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,” Sharma said. The SSP said they will seek their custody to interrogate them further and gather more details. (PTI)
Cyclone Titli: Odisha clears assistance of Rs 2,270 cr
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Monday approved damage assistance to the tune of Rs 2,270 crore for districts hit by Cyclone ‘Titli’ and subsequent floods earlier this month. “A sum of Rs 375 crore has been earmarked for worst-affected Ganjam, Gajapati and Rayagada districts,” said Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi. He said district collectors have already been given Rs 102 crore for provision of first instalment of Gratuitous Relief (GR). The remaining amount will be transferred to bank accounts of the affected persons. The state government has sanctioned Rs 27 crore for the Energy Department to undertake restoration activities, and Rs 20 crore has been given to Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department towards relief materials. Sethi said the BJD government will also focus on the four adjoining districts hit by the disaster. (PTI)
Court sends son of former BSP MP to 14 day judicial custody
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday sent son of former BSP MP Ashish Pandey, who was arrested for brandishing pistol at a five-star hotel, to 14-day judicial custody. Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmendra Singh sent the accused to jail till November 5 after the police said that he was not required for further custodial interrogation. The court had earlier rejected his bail plea and issued a non-bailable warrant against him. Pandey had allegedly brandished a pistol at guests of a five-star hotel here threatening them in the foyer, a video of which went viral on the social media. He hails from Lucknow and is the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Rakesh Pandey. His brother, Ritesh Pandey, is an MLA in Uttar Pradesh. A plea was filed by Delhi Police which had registered an FIR on the complaint of the assistant security manager of The Hyatt Regency alleging that one person was flagging pistol in his hand in the porch area of the hotel after a tiff with a guest. A video of the incident, which occurred early on October 14, went viral on social media resulting in public outrage. It prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident. If convicted, Pandey may be awarded maximum seven years jail term along with fine for offences under the Arms Act. He can also be given maximum sentence of one month’s jail along with fine and a maximum jail term of seven years for the offences of wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation, respectively, under the IPC he is booked under. (PTI)
Fire rages on at Delhi’s Bhalswa landfill site
New Delhi: A fire has been raging at the Bhalswa landfill site here since October 20, raising concerns about rising pollution levels in the city. Delhi’s air quality oscillated between “poor” and “very poor” category Sunday as authorities have warned of days of severe pollution ahead. The fire at Bhalswa landfill site broke out at 2 pm on October 20, a Delhi Fire Service official said, adding firefighting was still going on at the site. Three fire tenders are working to douse the blaze, he said. Meanwhile, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) said the fire was extinguished by noon, but the fire department maintained that the fire was still raging at the site. Bhalswa landfill site falls under the jurisdiction of the NDMC. The nearly 50 metre-high heap at Bhalswa is already saturated way beyond its capacity. (PTI)