Paris: The founder and CEO of popular messaging app 'Telegram' Pavel Durov (39) was arrested by the police at the Paris airport. He was taken into custody after arriving at the Paris airport from Azerbaijan on Saturday evening. He has been accused of hawala fraud, drug trafficking and sharing information about child sexual exploitation through Telegram.

As a result, the officers who issued the arrest warrant in the past have been arrested recently. Born in Russia, Durov currently resides in Dubai. He took French citizenship in August 2021. Telegram app is used by around 90 crore people worldwide. It is noteworthy that Russian government officials expressed their anger over Durov's arrest. They commented that this is proof of the double standards of the West on freedom of speech.