MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court has granted bail to a 36-year-old Indore-based software developer accused of creating and selling 2,805 malicious Android application kit (APK) files allegedly used by cybercrime gangs to defraud 9,673 people of more than ₹150 crore across the country, observing that there was no prima facie evidence directly linking him to the fraud that led to his arrest Published on: Nov 13, 2026, 07:37:10 IST By Vikrant Jha Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link MUMBAI: A metropolitan magistrate court has granted bail to a 36-year-old Indore-based software developer accused of creating and selling 2,805 malicious Android application kit (APK) files allegedly used by cybercrime gangs to defraud 9,673 people of more than ₹150 crore across the country, observing that there was no prima facie evidence directly linking him to the fraud that led to his arrest.

The accused, Pankaj Avdhesh Lal Gupta, was arrested by the crime branch’s Property Cell following a complaint by a 72-year-old Byculla resident who lost ₹5.62 lakh after downloading a fake senior citizen card verification application.

According to the police, Gupta allegedly created and sold the malicious applications, disguised as legitimate services such as senior citizen card verification, pension and life certificate verification, e-traffic challans, credit card updates and the PM Kisan Yojana.

He allegedly sold them to cybercrime gangs, including groups operating in Bihar and Jharkhand, for ₹20,000 to ₹25,000 each.

Police said 1,074 complaints linked to the applications had been registered on the national cybercrime helpline, including 142 in Maharashtra and 36 in Mumbai.

As many as 88 cases had also been registered across the country, of which eight were in Maharashtra and five in Mumbai.

The identified cases involved losses exceeding ₹15.75 crore, while the suspected nationwide fraud linked to the applications was estimated at more than ₹150 crore.

The case came to light after the Byculla resident received a WhatsApp call on August 13 from a man identifying himself as Dinesh Kumar, a senior manager with the Bank of India.

The caller allegedly offered him a senior citizen card, purportedly available to people aged 70 and above, with a limit of ₹5 lakh, and sent him an APK file to download.

Following the caller’s instructions, the complainant entered his banking and debit card details.

The next afternoon, he discovered that ₹5.62 lakh had been debited from his account and approached the cybercrime helpline.

The investigation was subsequently transferred to the crime branch’s Property Cell, which traced Gupta through technical analysis of the malicious application files.

Opposing Gupta’s bail plea, filed through advocate Sunil Pandey, the prosecution told the court that he had prepared approximately 2,805 APK files and that technical analysis had identified 9,673 mobile numbers associated with him.

Four mobile phones, three hard disks and a CPU had been seized from him.

The prosecution argued that the investigation was at a crucial stage and that his release could lead to evidence tampering or him absconding.

However, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Dattatray Shankarrao Khedekar observed that there was no direct allegation that Gupta had sent the APK file to the complainant or made any material alteration to it to facilitate the fraud.

The court also noted that the ₹5.62 lakh allegedly siphoned from the complainant’s account had neither been recovered from Gupta nor traced to his bank account.

The court observed that the possibility of third parties altering and misusing the APK files without Gupta’s knowledge or authority needed to be examined through technical evidence.

Holding that his direct involvement in cheating the complainant was not prima facie established, it noted that the investigating officer had already seized the relevant material and that there was no apparent possibility of evidence tampering.

The court accordingly granted him bail.

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