In an unusual escalation, Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police have named Preeti Lobana, Head of Google India, as a co-accused in three separate cyber fraud cases involving fake stock market investment apps that victims say they trusted precisely because the apps were listed on the Google Play Store. Google has responded that its own review found only one of the apps named in the complaints was actually available on the Play Store, and that it complied with the platform’s financial services policy.
Three Victims, One Common Thread
The cases stem from complaints filed by three separate individuals who together allege losses of ₹24.37 lakh, ₹17 lakh and ₹7.42 lakh. In the largest of the three, a 69-year-old man said he encountered a social media advertisement in May promising returns of ₹22 lakh a week, registered his number on the linked website, and was subsequently contacted by a woman on a messaging app who steered him toward an investment platform whose app was available on the Play Store. He alleges he was induced to transfer large sums before the platform refused to release his funds.
In the second case, a victim transferred over ₹17 lakh, including money borrowed through personal loans, between mid-May and mid-June, after the app showed apparent profits of ₹41.7 lakh but demanded further payments before allowing any withdrawal. The third complainant, a 71-year-old retired government employee from Erragadda, alleged he lost ₹7 lakh after being contacted on WhatsApp by individuals posing as investment advisers and directed to a fraudulent trading app. In each case, police have registered cases against the alleged fraudsters under the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and named Lobana as a co-accused alongside them.
Why the Google India Head Was Named
A senior Hyderabad Cyber Crime official told PTI that the Google India head was booked as co-accused based specifically on the complainants’ own allegations, which centre on Google’s app review and content moderation processes rather than any direct involvement in the fraud itself. Police said they are in the process of issuing a formal notice to Google India seeking detailed information about the applications named in the complaints, and are verifying which apps were genuinely hosted on the Play Store and what fraudulent content, if any, they contained.
The complainants’ core argument is that Google’s app review and verification mechanisms failed to prevent fraudulent investment applications from appearing on its platform, and that the apps’ presence on an official marketplace lent them a credibility that made victims far less cautious than they might otherwise have been.
Google’s Response
A Google spokesperson said the company had launched an immediate investigation after being alerted to the complaints, and that its review found only one of the apps named across the three cases was actually listed on the Google Play Store. The company said this app complied with the Play Store’s financial services policy, which strictly prohibits deceptive and fraudulent behaviour. Google added that it reviews all valid legal requests received through due process and, where appropriate, restricts or removes applications in accordance with applicable local law, indicating it would cooperate with the forthcoming police notice while maintaining that its own compliance checks had been followed for the app it identified as genuinely present on the store.
A Test Case for Platform Accountability
The move is being widely described as one of the first instances of Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police directly naming the head of a major technology company as a co-accused in a financial fraud case, and is likely to sharpen a broader debate around how much responsibility digital marketplaces bear for the financial applications they host, even when those applications initially pass automated and manual review. It is worth noting that naming a company’s local head as a co-accused in an IT Act or BNS case is a familiar, if contested, legal tactic in Indian cybercrime investigations, often used to formally compel a platform’s cooperation and information disclosure, rather than necessarily reflecting a finding of personal wrongdoing at this early investigative stage.
Renowned cybercrime expert and former IPS officer Prof Triveni Singh said the availability of an application on an app store should never be treated as proof of its authenticity or financial credibility. He noted that cybercriminals increasingly build professionally designed investment apps with polished interfaces and attractive return promises specifically to exploit the trust users place in official marketplaces. He advised investors to independently verify a company’s regulatory approvals, registration details and overall credibility, ideally through SEBI or other relevant financial regulators, before transferring any money through a digital investment platform, regardless of where the app was downloaded from.
The investigation remains ongoing, with police examining the technical details of the applications, their developers, financial transaction trails and further digital evidence as they build out the case against the alleged fraud network.
