Ghaziabad court grants 5-day custody of fake envoy; STF probing foreign links

During police custody remand, Jain will be questioned about offshore accounts and firms and his links with Ali, Chandraswami, and Khashoggi, said and investigator

A Ghaziabad court on Monday granted a five-day police custody remand (PCR) of 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. The remand, granted on the request of the special task force (STF), will be in effect from July 29 to August 2.

Harsha Vardhan Jain, the accused. (HT Photos)

“We need to probe many details about the recoveries and other incriminating documents seized from his rented house. A PCR was requested for five days, and a Ghaziabad court allowed the remand,” said Bhaskar Verma, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Kavi Nagar circle. “During this period, Jain will be questioned in detail,” he added.

According to police, 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 recovered ₹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. Several of these materials, police said, were used to support his false claims of 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.

“During police custody remand, Jain will be questioned about offshore accounts and firms and his links with Ali, Chandraswami, and Khashoggi. A lot of details are present in a diary recovered during his arrest,” said an STF investigator. “We have also come to know about many offshore companies that had names similar to Indian corporate and government identities. We will try to gather a lot of details about these companies.”

Investigators said 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.