Police found images of the primary suspect with infamous “godman” and Saudi arms trader Adnan Khashoggi during a raid on a phony embassy in Ghaziabad. In a shocking revelation, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested Harshvardhan Jain, a resident of Delhi-NCR, for running a false diplomatic mission from his Ghaziabad residence under the curtain of different micronations, like Westarctica, Seborga, Poulvia and Lodonia.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Chandraswami rose to fame and was regarded as the spiritual advisor to three previous prime ministers: VP Singh, Chandra Shekhar, and PV Narasimha Rao. But in 1996, he was taken into custody for financial violations. He was also charged with providing financial support for Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. His ties to arms dealer Khashoggi were also exposed during a raid at his ashram.
Chandraswami introduced Jain to Khashoggi and Ahsan Ali Sayed in London in 2000, according to the UP ATS’s investigation. According to Amitabh Yash, the assistant director general (ADG) of law and order for the UP Police, Sayed allegedly collaborated with the phony diplomat to establish 25 shell corporations that were used to broker transactions.
For nearly ten years, he posed to be an Honorary Consul and Ambassador going with luxurious cars with fake diplomatic number plates and flags, forged stamps and documents, even manipulated photographs posing with Indian leaders-all of which were part of his elaborate scheme to bolster credentials which were nothing more than fictitious.
His so-called embassy promised unsuspecting victims overseas employment, citizenship, visas and even international business alliances. During the raid, they recovered cash of Rs 44 lakh, foreign currency, four luxury vehicles with fake plates, 12 unauthentic passports for diplomats, fake PAN cards, rubber stamps, forged press IDs and digital evidence of shell companies purported as fronts for hawala operations. Investigators have linked his network to 25 shell firms and money-laundering worth nearly ₹300 crores through Swiss-based entities that are involved in bogus brokerage deals, worsening the situation of fraud.
Who is Harshvardhan Jain, the “Westarctica diplomat”?
According to reports, Harsha Vardhan Jain holds an MBA from the London College of Applied Science. For seven years, he had operated a fictitious embassy for micronations like “Westarctica,” which are not acknowledged by any state.
He claimed to be an ambassador or consul for nations that did not exist, such as Lodonia, Poulvia, and Saborga. His family owns marble mines in Rajasthan, and he is the son of a Ghaziabad businessman.
Yet More Alleged Notorious Infamy: Global Reach
Apart from all these, Jain purportedly had an international fraudulent network. Police have it that he had some kind of association with the controversial godman Chandraswami and Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who had supposedly introduced Jain to some leading co-conspirators like Ahsan Ali Sayed-a figure behind Swiss shell companies involved in the ₹300 crore laundering scheme.
Known to travel to no less than 40 countries within the last decade-primarily going to the UAE, Switzerland and Europe-Jain apparently used these trips to manage his operations and broaden his reach. He pursued his post-graduate education at an MBA institution in London, and marble mines were once owned by his family, although the family’s financial fallout forced him to dabble in such schemes of fraud.
Westarctica itself has since suspended his claim as a diplomat, stating that the passports and the whole paraphernalia of diplomatic missions were unauthorized creations of Jain himself and promised full cooperation with Indian authorities. Jain is presently in judicial custody facing many counts which include forgery, impersonation, cheating and money-laundering. This case points out the perfectly developed scams of the digital era, which can exploit the illusion of diplomacy and micro-state identity in order to prey on trust and ambition.
