Indore software engineer gets bail in ₹150 crore cyber fraud case

According to a report by Aaj Tak, Mumbai's Esplanade Magistrate Court has granted bail to Pankaj Awadhesh Lal Gupta, a 36-year-old software developer from Indore, in a ₹150 crore cyber fraud case. Pankaj Gupta was arrested in this matter by the Property Cell of the DCB CID unit of the Mumbai Police.

During the police investigation of this case, it was revealed that the accused had allegedly created and provided a large number of malicious APK files used by cybercriminals for fraud. In this matter, thousands of people across the country had to become targets and suffer losses.

According to the police investigation figures, Pankaj Gupta had allegedly prepared 2,805 malicious Android Package Kits, meaning APK files. These files were used by different cybercriminal networks to commit fraud against various people across the country.

The investigation also revealed that the network connected to these cyber fraud incidents had perpetrated a scam of a large amount of around ₹150 crore. Due to this entire cyber fraud, more than 9,600 people were affected and had to face financial losses.

According to the allegations of the investigative agencies, Pankaj Gupta used to sell these dangerous APK files to ground-level active cybercriminal modules. He allegedly charged anywhere from ₹20,000 to ₹25,000 for each APK file.

The police also alleged that these files were used by cybercriminals to target ordinary citizens and commit online fraud against them. Following the arrest of the accused in this matter, the Esplanade Magistrate Court has now ordered his release on bail.