Puducherry police arrest kingpin in Rs 100-crore multi-state crypto fraud case
PUDUCHERRY: In a major breakthrough in a multi-state cryptocurrency fraud case, the Puducherry Cybercrime Police have arrested Imran Basha (37), a resident of Saibaba Colony in Coimbatore, from Bengaluru. Basha is the main accused in a massive scam involving a fake cryptocurrency called Hashpe, which defrauded investors of over Rs 100 crore across India. He was wanted in six states and is linked to 22 criminal cases.
A special team from the Puducherry Cyber Crime Special Cell arrested Basha. They have been pursuing him since last year for allegedly luring people by promising to triple their investment in two months through the fictitious Hashpe platform. The case surfaced when Asokan, a resident of Lawspet in Puducherry, lost Rs 93 lakh to the fraudulent scheme. Following his complaint, eight more investors from the Union Territory came forward, reporting combined losses of Rs 2.5 crore. A formal probe was launched under Senior Superintendent of Police Narra Chaitanya and Superintendent of Police S Baskarane.
On May 17, another key figure, Syed Usman alias Babu, Managing Director of Hashpe, was arrested in Coimbatore after evading authorities for six months. Earlier, five others including Damodaran, Hitesh Jain, and Aravind Kumar, also from Coimbatore, were arrested. Police have seized several high-end vehicles, including one valued at Rs 1.5 crore. Investigations revealed that the accused promoted Hashpe using celebrities Tamannaah and Kajal Aggarwal to gain public trust, then artificially inflated the coin's value before rendering it worthless overnight. Police believe more than five suspects remain at large.
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