A magistrate court in Thane, India, has granted bail to CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Surendra Gupta and Niraj Ashok Khandelwal following a cheating complaint worth 71 lakh Indian rupees, approximately $75,000. The court issued a common order on March 23, concluding that no prima facie case had been established against the two men even upon an initial review of the available evidence. The founders had been taken in for questioning on a Saturday and held over the weekend after a complainant alleged they had defrauded an investor.
The presiding magistrate noted in the order that the investigating officer raised no objection to the release of the co-founders. The court further recorded that the applicants were not present in Mumbra at the time the alleged offence took place. Crucially, the magistrate observed that some other individual, posing as the accused, had carried out the deception — a fact the complainant acknowledged before the court.
The judge also noted that the complainant had filed an affidavit confirming that another accused, identified as Rana, had already repaid the defrauded amount. The affidavit further stated that the co-founders were not the individuals the complainant had met at a café in Kausa Mumbra, where the fraudulent transaction was arranged. With the matter described as amicably settled between the complainant and the primary accused, the court determined there was no risk of the founders interfering with evidence or witnesses.
Each co-founder was ordered released upon executing a bond of 50,000 Indian rupees, roughly $530, subject to conditions requiring their cooperation with the ongoing investigation and any subsequent trial proceedings. The swift resolution of the bail applications reflects the court’s assessment that the founders bore no direct connection to the alleged scheme.
In a statement posted to X on March 24, CoinDCX said the court proceedings supported a third-party impersonation scenario, asserting that the fraud was carried out through a lookalike website operating under the domain coindcx.pro. The company stated that this site has no affiliation with the exchange and urged users to verify web domains before engaging with any platform claiming to represent CoinDCX.
The exchange framed the incident as part of a wider pattern of impersonation and phishing scams targeting prominent brands within India’s financial and cryptocurrency sectors. CoinDCX called on users to interact exclusively with its official platform and verified social media profiles to avoid falling victim to similar schemes. The case highlights ongoing concerns about fraudulent platforms exploiting the reputations of established crypto exchanges to deceive investors.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
