Thane court grants bail to CoinDCX founders, cites no case

A magistrate court in Thane, Maharashtra, granted bail on March 23 to CoinDCX co-founders Sumit Surendra Gupta and Niraj Ashok Khandelwal, ruling that no prima facie case was made out in a 7.1 million Indian rupees cheating complaint linked to a fake trading site mimicking the exchange. Each was ordered released on a 50,000 rupee bond.

According to the common order on their applications, the founders were detained for questioning in fake site probe on March 21 and remanded over the weekend after a complaint alleged an investor was duped through a platform posing as CoinDCX.

The magistrate recorded that the investigating officer raised “no objection” to their release and noted that the applicants were not present in Mumbra when the alleged offense occurred. The order added that “some other person by representing as accused cheated the informant,” a point the informant acknowledged in court.

In a post on X, CoinDCX characterized the case as a “third-party impersonation” incident and stated that the fraud took place on a lookalike domain, coindcx.pro, which it described as unrelated to the company. The company urged users to verify web addresses and to use its official platform and social media channels.

The judge also took on record an affidavit from the informant stating that another accused, identified as Rana, had repaid the disputed amount and that the applicants were not the people he met at a café in Kausa Mumbra where the deal was arranged. With the matter “amicably settled” between the informant and the main accused, the court concluded there was no risk of the founders tampering with evidence or witnesses.

Both Gupta and Khandelwal were granted bail on condition they cooperate with the ongoing investigation and any ensuing trial proceedings.