A Thane magistrate freed CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal on Tuesday. Magistrate Nilesh Rathod ruled no prima facie case existed against them. Bail was fixed at Rs 50,000 surety each.
The pair had been picked up from Bengaluru on March 21. Mumbra police arrested them under an FIR registered March 16. The complaint named six accused in a Rs 71,60,015 fraud case, as first reported by Cryptonewslive.
The Affidavit That Cracked the Case Open
The complainant, a 42-year-old insurance advisor from Mumbra, filed his own affidavit in court. He stated he had already received the disputed funds back from one of the other accused. He further confirmed he does not personally know either Gupta or Khandelwal.
That was the prosecution’s own witness. It did much of the defence’s work for them.
Advocates Abhijeet Sawant, Pranav Badheka, and Rajan Salunke appeared for the duo, according to Economic Times. Their argument was direct. The founders were not present at any of the alleged meetings. The individuals the complainant actually dealt with had only used Gupta and Khandelwal’s names and the CoinDCX brand to run the scheme.
The defence also placed a 2024 Delhi High Court order before the magistrate. CoinDCX’s parent entity, Neblio Technologies, had obtained it to stop unidentified parties from misusing the company name. The founders, the lawyers argued, were victims themselves.
Fake Domain, Real Victims: The Phishing Trail
CoinDCX had placed active warnings on its website and app before the arrest. The disclaimers flagged fraudsters misusing its brand. Those materials entered the defence record in court.
CryptooIndia on X summarised the court’s outcome plainly. As CryptooIndia posted on X, the court confirmed the founders were impersonated, the scam ran through third-party phishing, and exchange operations remain normal. The post also flagged the difference between the fake domain coindcx.pro and the official coindcx.com, calling on users to verify links before any transaction.
As @CoinDCX posted on X on March 21, the FIR was filed as a conspiracy by impersonators posing as founders of the exchange. The company stated no official funds were involved and urged all users to transact only through verified channels. Between April 2024 and January 5, 2026, the exchange reported over 1,212 fake websites impersonating coindcx.com to cyber authorities. That number signals how organised this problem has become.
Magistrate Quotes the Constitution Directly
The bail order itself was pointed. Magistrate Rathod cited Article 21 of the Indian Constitution covering the right to life and personal liberty. He applied Supreme Court doctrine directly. Bail is the rule. Detention is the exception.
The magistrate held that no prima facie case was made out against the applicants and ordered their release, as confirmed by Economic Times. The bail application was filed the same day they entered judicial custody. Court heard it the same Tuesday. Quick turnaround.
Police confirmed Monday the broader probe continues regardless. Four other accused remain at large. The Mumbra police investigation will not slow because of the bail order, authorities said.
The FIR had charged Gupta, Khandelwal, and four others under cheating, criminal breach of trust, and fraud. The complainant claimed losses of Rs 71,60,015 transferred through cash and online transactions between August 2025 and March 2026. None of those funds flowed through official CoinDCX infrastructure, according to Cryptonewslive. The question of who actually ran the impersonation ring, and how far it extended, stays open.
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