LUCKNOW: A Ghaziabad court sent Harsha Vardhan Jain, accused of impersonating a diplomat representing multiple self-declared or fictitious micronations and running a fake consulate from his rented residence in Kavi Nagar, on a five-day police custody remand (PCR).
The remand, granted on Monday at the request of the Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police, came into effect from July 29 to August 2.
According to Bhaskar Verma, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Kavi Nagar circle, it was imperative to probe many details about the recoveries and other incriminating documents seized from the rented house of Jain. “A PCR was requested for five days, and a Ghaziabad court allowed the remand,” he said. “During this period, Jain will be questioned in detail,” he added.
Notably, Jain was arrested on July 22 from his residence after an FIR was lodged against him at Kavi Nagar police station under Sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), and 340(2) (use of forged documents or electronic records) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
During the raid at his house, police had recovered Rs 44.7 lakh in cash, four luxury vehicles bearing fake diplomatic number plates, forged documents allegedly linked to foreign ministries, 34 seals of different micronations—some of which were fictitious—20 number plates with diplomatic tags, and 12 passports.
The material recovered, police claimed, was used by Jain to bolster his false diplomatic status.
Officials said Jain, 47, had allegedly been posing as an envoy for several unrecognised micronations—including Westarctica, Seborga, Ladonia, and the fictional virtual state of Paulovia—and using these claims to establish a fraudulent consular setup in Ghaziabad.
According to investigators, Jain first came into contact with controversial godman Chandraswami in London around 2000. Chandraswami allegedly introduced him to Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Syed Ehsan Ali, a Hyderabad-born associate who was convicted in Switzerland last year for financial fraud involving offshore companies.
According to sources in the STF, Jain will be questioned during police custody about offshore accounts and firms and his links with Ali, Chandraswami, and Khashoggi. A lot of details are reportedly present in a diary recovered during his arrest.
As per the sources, Jain had taken up to 150–200 foreign trips to over 30 countries and is believed to have co-founded several overseas firms with Ali. The STF has already approached Interpol for issuance of a Blue Corner Notice to trace Jain’s international operations and network.