Recently Knight et al. (2013a, b, 2014) reported Hypselobarbus pulchellus as being newly rediscovered from its type locality, but their discovery and report was discovered to be controversial. The examination of those specimens described as H. pulchellus by Knight et al. (2013b) revealed that they belonged to Hypselobarbus bicolor (Knight et al. 2016). Based on this, we perused his collections from Nethravathi, Thunga and Bhadra rivers and found that there exist seven specimens with standard lengths ranging from 315.85-351.72 mm that all displayed similarities with the original description of H. pulchellus. As the identity of H. pulchellus was not resolved by Knight et al. (2013b, 2014, 2016), herein we redescribe this species. Moreover, the closely related species H. jerdoni and H. dobsoni are also described based on specimens collected from their type localities and from a selection of specimens made available at the Zoological Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, Chennai, India. In addition, the subspecies Barbus (=Hypselobarbus) jerdoni maciveri Annandale 1919 is elevated to H. maciveri based on the examination of the holotype and paratypes from ZSI, Kolkatta and from specimens available from the senior author’s collections. Finally, another new species is described herein based on collections by the senior author that was wrongly identified as H. puchellus