India’s enforcement agencies step up their crackdown on Hashpe crypto scam, with arrests made and the scale of losses under scrutiny amid conflicting reports on the total damage caused to investors across multiple states.
India’s money-laundering agency has taken the Hashpe cryptocurrency case into a new phase after searching 11 premises in Chennai, Coimbatore and Kolkata on 1 September and arresting Imran Basha and Hitesh Kumar on 3 September. The move pushes a case that began with complaints from Puducherry investors into a broader financial-crime inquiry, and it also highlights a sharp difference in the claimed scale of the alleged fraud: while the Enforcement Directorate is examining laundering linked to about Rs40 crore, earlier police reporting put losses across India at more than Rs100 crore.
The first complaint traced in the Puducherry investigation came from Ashokan, a 70-year-old retired BSNL employee from Lawspet. The New Indian Express said he lost Rs93 lakh, but Hindu Tamil Thisai and Tamil Indian Express reported a more detailed version, saying he had invested Rs98 lakh in 2023 and later found that holdings shown as worth Rs2.5 crore could not be sold because the website had been blocked. Those reports said eight or nine people from Puducherry later came forward, putting losses in the Union Territory at about Rs2.5 crore.
Investigators say Hashpe was sold as a high-return crypto opportunity built around a fictitious token. According to The New Indian Express and The420.in, investors were told their money could triple in two months. The same reports said the scheme was promoted through social media, staged influencers and celebrity appearances meant to build confidence. Hindu Tamil Thisai reported that the token was ultimately rendered worthless in a single day, leaving investors in several states unable to recover what they had put in.
Basha had already been arrested in the underlying police case before the ED stepped in. Puducherry cybercrime officers detained the 37-year-old in Bengaluru in June 2025, describing him as a resident of Saibaba Colony in Coimbatore, wanted in six states and linked to 22 criminal cases. Before that, Syed Usman, also known as Babu, had been arrested in Coimbatore on 17 May 2025 after evading police for six months. Local reports also named Aravind Kumar, Damodaran and an associate identified variously as Hitesh Jain or Nithishkumar Jain among those held earlier.
That discrepancy over names is now part of the story. The latest ED account says Hitesh Kumar was arrested alongside Basha, while earlier coverage of the police inquiry used slightly different names for one of the accused. That may reflect inconsistent identification in early reporting, or a wider group of suspects than the latest account spells out. Hindu Tamil Thisai said police had already seized phones, a laptop and cash, while local reports on the earlier arrests said luxury vehicles were also recovered, including cars valued at up to Rs2 crore.
The alleged money trail points well beyond a failed token sale. The ED says the proceeds were spent on a lavish lifestyle and property purchases. Earlier Tamil reporting added that Basha told investigators money collected from the public had been sent to several countries through banking channels. By June 2025, police were also saying they were trying to trace a Dubai-based figure whom they considered a key operator in the network, suggesting the investigation had already moved beyond the men first arrested in Coimbatore and Bengaluru.
The celebrity angle, which brought the case wider attention, remains contested and unevenly reported. OneIndia, which referred to the business as Christo Currency Company, said Tamannaah Bhatia and Kajal Aggarwal were named in a Puducherry complaint tied to an alleged Rs2.40 crore fraud after appearing at launch and promotional events. Tamil-language reports later said police believed Rs34 lakh had been paid to Tamannaah and Rs28 lakh to Kajal from cheated funds when Hashpe was launched in 2021. Those dates do not line up neatly with all other accounts: The420.in said the scam duped investors since 2024, while OneIndia said the company had been established in 2020. What is clearer is that Tamannaah publicly rejected the claims. NDTV reported that she called the reports “fake, misleading, and false reports and rumours” and said her team was considering “appropriate action”. Nothing in the source material establishes wrongdoing by either actor.
What began as a local cybercrime complaint is now a multi-agency fraud case with unresolved questions over scale, chronology and control. The420.in reported that more than five suspects were still being sought, and Hindu Tamil Thisai said police were considering notices to the actresses while pursuing overseas leads. With the ED now alleging money laundering after the September 2026 searches and arrests, investigators will be under pressure to explain whether the alleged losses were closer to the Rs40 crore now under scrutiny or the Rs100 crore-plus figure cited repeatedly in the earlier police investigation.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to inform and educate, not to recommend or endorse any financial product, investment or strategy. Please consider your own financial circumstances and seek professional advice where appropriate before making financial decisions.
