Ghaziabad: A man in Ghaziabad has been detained with claims of operating a bogus embassy in a hired house in Kavi Nagar, the police officials verified on Tuesday. The defendant is known as Harshvardhan Jain, and he was pretending to be a consul or ambassador to various self-proclaimed micronations such as Westarctica, Saborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia. Additional Director General (Law & Order) Amitabh Yash reported that Jain was using this fake pretence in order to enjoy the benefits of having diplomatic status and indulge in illegal activities.
The governments have learnt that Jain used diplomatic favors by replacing genuine number plates of his vehicles with false diplomatic ones and disseminating morphed photographs along with top leaders of the country, such as the Prime Minister and President of India, in order to strengthen his personality. His main operations are said to have been involving the selling of overseas deals to both individuals and companies as well as running a hawala racket using shell companies. Police were also able to find out that Jain had once had connections to controversial personalities like Chandraswami and a foreign arms dealer by the name Adnan Khagoshi.
In the search and seizures done by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) Noida unit, officials recovered crores of rupees worth of assets in the form of 44 lakh cash and foreign currency of some countries, 4 luxurious cars with foreign numbers, 18 fake diplomatic number plates, and 12 forged diplomatic passports of micronations. They also seized counterfeit documents with the seal of the Ministry of External Affairs, counterfeit PAN cards, bogus press cards, and 34 seals of various countries and companies.
Police said that this is not the first time that Jain was booked; in 2011, he was booked on charges of having illegal satellite phones. A FIR has already been lodged in Kavi Nagar police station, and the probe continues further in order to find the extent of his network and whether he was involved in any international links. Government officials are also investigating suspected participation in money and weapon-related offenses.
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