Ghaziabad: The sprawling white building stood out even in the posh Kavi Nagar neighbourhood of Ghaziabad, with flags on the rooftop and no less than five high-end cars with ‘diplomatic registration plates’ lined up outside. A burnished plaque at the gates said ‘Grand Duchy of Westarctica, H.E. (His Excellency) H.V. Jain, Honorary Consul’, in ornate, curly letters.
Welcome to the embassy of ‘Seborgia, Poulbia, Lodonia and Westarctica’. Yes, these countries do not exist—not officially anyway, they are something called “micronations”. Yet, this is where the son of a businessman spent almost eight years posing as a diplomat, allegedly brokering deals for companies and individuals seeking jobs abroad through a web of agents while flaunting his so-called connections, and running a hawala racket through shell companies. Nobody guessed a thing, until a tip-off blew the lid off a most intricate web of deception.
Earlier this week, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) conducted a raid at Harsh Vardhan Jain’s rented bungalow number KB-35 after verifying from the Ministry of External Affairs that no official embassy existed there. Now, the palatial two-storey wears a deserted look, bereft of the ‘diplomatic’ flags and the luxury cars.
The UP Police booked him under relevant sections for cheating, forgery etc under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. He is currently in judicial custody.
Before the raid, the STF had been tracking Harsh Vardhan, a native of Ghaziabad, based on inputs about his extravagant lifestyle, including his use of a swanky Mercedes S 350 bearing ‘diplomatic stickers’ and flags of non-existent foreign countries.
At the ‘embassy’, the STF found Rs 44.70 lakh in cash, 12 fake passports in Harsh Vardhan’s name, including ‘diplomatic’ ones bearing the names of these micronations, and forged Ministry of External Affairs documents, pointing to the magnitude of his illegal activities. They also found watches, an array of rubber stamps, car number plates, and ID cards.
All the cars parked outside the gates were found to have been purchased second-hand at heavily discounted rates, with no fitness certificates.
Investigators say the picture that emerges of Harsh Vardhan is that of a man who relished feeling important, flaunting connections, cruising around in high-end cars, and inviting people to hold talks at his ‘embassy’.
“He used to press upon his web of contacts to bring more and more people daily for work in foreign countries. He craved attention and respect from people needing jobs abroad,” said an STF officer.
Another STF officer said that as the agents would bring in businessmen and individuals seeking jobs overseas, Harsh Vardhan often used the false MEA documents found at his apartment to assert his “influence”. He once also participated in a conference in Ghaziabad, allegedly as a counsellor of one of the micronations.
In the initial round questioning by the STF, the 47-year-old denied having carried out any fraud and said all of his acts were out of “passion and attachment with respect and command diplomatic entities hold”.
He claimed that after meeting “the people of Seborgia and Westarctica”, he decided to establish their private embassy in India to help people get jobs abroad.
No one has yet come forward and claimed to have been duped by Harsh Vardhan, and sources in the UP STF say the extent of the alleged job racket is yet to be revealed.
But the plot thickens. He was an ardent follower of the late Chandraswami, a controversial self-proclaimed “godman” of politicians who was known for his proximity to former prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He has also been linked to UAE-based international arms dealer late Adnan Khashoggi, STF investigators said.
Also Read: First Kailasa, now a fake ‘Westarctica’ embassy. Criminals are giving new meaning to cosplay
A godman, an arms dealer & a satellite phone
Just blocks away from the rented accommodation that was Harsh Vardhan’s ‘embassy of Westarctica’, is the home of his elderly parents.
The board outside the house suggests the senior Jain is an honorary animal welfare officer. It was from this house that Harsh Vardhan was thrown out with his “embassy business” by his father earlier this year.
The original owners of the ‘embassy’ have now found themselves in a pickle for no fault of their own. “He shifted there with his business on 1 February this year on an agreement of Rs 35,000 per month,” the son of the landlord told ThePrint outside his house. “I have come here only to clarify a few questions, as my house was shown all over news channels as being involved in some fraud.”
Harsh Vardhan told the STF during his questioning that he has spent a considerable amount of time outside the country, and built contacts which he leveraged to run his alleged racket.
He got his Bachelor in Business Administration from Ghaziabad’s ITS College and an MBA from London where he visited frequently for work related to his father’s firms. JD Jain, his father, used to own a factory in Uttar Pradesh and two marble mines in Rajasthan, exporting marble to London.
It was during one of his business trips to London in 2000 that Harsh Vardhan came in contact with the ‘godman’ Chandraswami. “Chandraswami introduced him to Saudi Arabia-based arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and Adnan Rhabhi, a resident of Saudi Arabia, and Ahsan Ali Syed (a London-based Indian businessman),” a UP STF spokesperson said Wednesday.
With Ali Syed’s help, he allegedly incorporated more than a dozen consultancy firms in London that he used for liaison and brokerage, the spokesperson added.
In 2006, Harsh Vardhan moved to Dubai from India and expanded his ‘business empire’ with the help of his cousin.
“He formed more companies through which brokerage was done in the name of getting (people) work, etc., in different countries, in which Harsh Vardhan Jain started getting good money,” the UP STF spokesperson said, quoting the ‘diplomat’s’ revelations made during initial rounds of questioning. “During this period, Harsh Vardhan Jain has also travelled to many countries in the Gulf and Africa, and conducted brokerage work in these regions.”
Harsh Vardhan returned to India in 2011. The following year, he was booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police for possessing a satellite phone, which cannot be held without the permission of the Department of Telecommunications. He was never arrested in the case.
Back in India, STF members said, he got into the business of running the ‘fake’ embassy in 2012 when he ‘appointed’ himself as an adviser to ‘Seborgia’, followed by his appointment as an ‘honorary ambassador for Westarctica’ in 2016.
“After meeting the people of Seborgia and Westarctica, I established their private embassy in India and have also installed diplomatic number plates on the 04 vehicles I have, which helps in influencing the people. I also get a good amount of money for providing work to people abroad,” an STF officer quoted him as saying.
“During interrogation, Harsh Vardhan Jain said he has been doing brokerage in the name of providing work to people in the country and abroad for many years,” an STF officer documented in the complaint that formed the basis of the FIR lodged Tuesday at the Kavi Nagar police station.
‘Shell companies in UK, UAE, Africa’
The STF has allegedly found that Harshvardhan opened several shell companies under names like ‘State Trading Corporation’, ‘East India Company UK’, and ‘UAE Island General Trading Company LLC’ in the United Kingdom, ‘Indira Overseas Ltd’ in Mauritius and ‘Cameron Ispat SARL’ in Cameron, in association with Hyderabad-born London businessman Ahsan Ali Syed.
Ali Syed has been convicted by Swiss court on the charge of defrauding firms to the tune of 25 million pounds. Syed, currently a Turkish citizen according to the STF’s findings, was arrested by the London police on the request of Swiss authorities and his extradition was approved in July 2023.
The STF has also found 10 foreign bank accounts in Harsh Vardhan’s name—six in Dubai, three in the UK and one in Mauritius based on PAN cards it seized during the Tuesday raid.
“He was playing in the big leagues with Ali Syed and Swami, especially between 2006 and 2012. He was acting as a liaison and took commission on bank accounts of shell companies incorporated overseas. He migrated and pursued the embassy business aggressively,” a UP police officer said.
The social media game
The STF officer quoted earlier further alleged that Harsh Vardhan used a morphed picture featuring the President of India, the Prime Minister, as well as other high-profile individuals on his social media profiles to lend credence to his claim of being a diplomat.
“All these were used for brokering and fraud in the name of providing work to companies and private people and to influence people. He illegally installed flags of different countries in his house in Ghaziabad and was running an embassy by putting diplomatic number plates on vehicles and was working from here through fraud, brokerage and hawala,” the UP STF spokesperson said.
“Details about how many people could have been sent to foreign countries, if any and how many were duped with such claims, is a matter of investigation which will come in due course. He will be questioned after he is taken into custody,” a UP police officer told ThePrint.
UP police sources further said that his wife may also be summoned during the course of investigation, if needed.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)