Investigative news portal Cobrapost on Friday released a series of videos as a part of its report “Operation 136” showing sting operation on how media organisations and others get easily lured by right-wing organisations. In the released videos, Paytm Senior Vice-president Ajay Shekhar Sharma and Vice-president Sudhanshu Gupta are shown as saying that the PMO asked for data of users when stone-pelting was at its peak in the Kashmir Valley.
The portal’s journalist Pusp Sharma posed as the representative of fictitious “Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Prachar Samiti” to meet Paytm officials.
“We got a call personally (sic) from the PMO asking us to give them the data. They said that maybe there were Paytm users (among those they were looking for),” Shekhar is quoted as saying on camera.
Reacting to the expose, Paytm released an official statement saying they have “shared data with law enforcement agencies on request”.
“Our policy allows ONLY legally compliant data requests from the law of the land to get access to data for necessary investigations,” Paytm said reacting to the report.
Requesting customers to trust them, Paytm added, “To further clarify, in the past, we have neither received requests nor shared any data without a legally compliant request from a bonafide agency and through proper process and channels. ”
There is absolutely NO TRUTH in the sensational headlines of a video doing rounds on social media. Our users’ data is 100% secure and has never been shared with anyone except law enforcement agencies on request. Thank you for your continued support.
— Paytm (@Paytm) May 25, 2018