Thane magistrate grants bail to CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, ruling no prima facie case in Rs 71.6 lakh identity fraud.
The complainant said he got his money back. Not from Sumit Gupta. Not from Neeraj Khandelwal. From someone else entirely. That single affidavit changed everything.
A Thane magistrate on Tuesday granted bail to both CoinDCX co-founders. Magistrate Nilesh Rathod ruled no prima facie case existed against either man. Each was released on a surety of Rs 50,000.
The arrest itself had rattled India’s crypto space. Mumbra police flew to Bengaluru on March 21 and brought the two back in custody. A holiday court first remanded them to police custody through March 23, then judicial custody followed. The bail hearing came Tuesday.
The Complainant Didn’t Know Them
A 42-year-old insurance advisor from Mumbra had filed the FIR on March 16. He claimed losses of Rs 71,60,015, transferred across cash and online transactions between August 2025 and this March. The scheme promised fixed returns through a firm purportedly tied to the CoinDCX founders.
Then he filed an affidavit. He told the court he had received the disputed amount from one of the six accused. He also stated clearly that he does not know the two arrested co-founders. That was enough.
Defence advocates Abhijeet Sawant, Pranav Badheka, and Rajan Salunke told the court their clients were not present at any alleged meetings. The persons the complainant interacted with were impersonators. People who used Gupta and Khandelwal’s names and the CoinDCX brand to run the scheme.
A Fake Domain. A Real Crime. Wrong Suspects.
According to CryptooIndia on X, the fraud was third-party phishing from start to finish. The fake site “coindcx.pro” was used to deceive victims. The real exchange operates only on “coindcx.com.” CryptooIndia also confirmed in that post that exchange funds remained safe and operations ran without interruption throughout.
CoinDCX had actually moved before any arrest happened. The company obtained a protective order from the Delhi High Court in 2024. That order, secured by parent firm Neblio Technologies, targeted unidentified parties misusing the brand. Disclaimers were up on the website and app warning the public about impersonators.
The CoinDCX fraud case came after the company had already flagged over 1,212 fake websites impersonating its domain. “coindcx.pro” was one of those flagged domains. The FIR was filed anyway.
Court Leans on Article 21
Magistrate Rathod did not hedge. The order cited Article 21 of the Constitution directly, which protects life and personal liberty. It applied the Supreme Court’s settled position: bail is the rule, jail is the exception.
“Prima facie, no case was made out against them,” the magistrate stated in the order, directing the release of both accused.
CoinDCX, in a Monday statement, called the FIR false and described it as a conspiracy filed by impersonators posing as its founders. The company said funds cited in the complaint went to third-party accounts carrying no relation to the exchange.
Police are still investigating. Four other accused named in the FIR remain at large. Officers said Monday that the complainant’s affidavit does not close the probe. All efforts to trace the remaining accused are continuing, the department confirmed.
Gupta and Khandelwal have been directed by the court to cooperate with the investigation going forward.
