Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma isn’t having the best few months.
After his company’s stock has been hammered at the stock markets, and the RBI had stopped Paytm Payments Bank from adding new customers, it has emerged that Sharma had been arrested for rash and negligent driving in February. Vijay Shekhar Sharma had allegedly rammed a Jaguar Land Rover into the vehicle of DCP (South District) in Aurobindo Marg in Delhi. An FIR under Section 279 (Rash or Negligent Driving) had been filed against him.
The incident had occurred on 22nd February, and police lodged an FIR on a complaint filed by Constable Dipak Kumar. Constable Kumar, when contacted by Indian Express, said he was posted with DCP (South) Benita Mary Jaiker, and had taken her vehicle to a petrol pump around 8 am.
“Constable Pradeep, an operator, was with me when we reached Mother’s International School and found a traffic jam there. I saw a gathering of people dropping their children (to school). I slowed down and asked Pradeep to get down to clear the traffic,” he said.
“I was waiting when a car came speeding from the side and rammed my vehicle. There was a Haryana registration number plate and the person managed to drive away. Our vehicle got damaged and Pradeep asked me to park on the side of the road. We informed our DCP and she asked me about the car. We told her that we had noted down the number, and then we lodged an FIR at Malviya Nagar police station,” he said.
In the FIR, Kumar said he “can identify the driver”. While Sharma had left the scene, police had traced the car with the help of the transport department, and discovered it was registered with a Gurgaon-based company.
The company told police it had given the vehicle to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a resident of Greater Kailash-II. Sharma was called to Malviya Nagar police station, where he was arrested and released on bail.
The incident caps a forgettable few months for Sharma. Late last year, Paytm had gone public in India’s largest-ever IPO, but the stock had been hammered at the markets, ending up becoming India’s worst-performing IPO since 2011. Paytm’s stock has fallen steadily since then, and has lost over 60% of its value, and Sharma’s personal net worth has fallen by nearly $1.5 billion (Rs. 10,000 crore). Just this week, it had emerged that the Reserve Bank had ordered Paytm Payments Bank to stop adding new customers over “material supervisory concerns observed in the bank.” And with news now emerging that he had been arrested as well, Sharma would be feeling that when it rains, it pours.