Believe it or not, but a man had been running a fake embassy of the “micronation of Westarctica”, complete with blue number-plated luxury cars and “national flags”, from a rented pristine-white villa in Ghaziabad for 13 years.

Harsh Vardhan Jain, 47, who also claimed to be a diplomat from bogus entities like Saborga, Poulvia and Londonia, was arrested on Tuesday evening by the special task force of Uttar Pradesh police following a tip-off.

The bust has yielded four luxury cars bearing fake diplomatic number plates. Morphed photos showing Jain posing with the Prime Minister, the President and other dignitaries have been recovered from the rented villa in Kavi Nagar that Jain projected as an embassy.

Among the other items found in his office were 12 diplomatic passports of some micronations, 18 fake diplomatic licence plates of vehicles, two fake PAN cards, 34 fake rubber stamps of the Indian foreign ministry and countries and companies, foreign currencies, 12 premium watches and around ₹44.70 lakh in cash.

Jain is accused of defrauding people by flaunting false diplomatic connections and international job placements. He is also suspected to have been involved in hawala transactions and brokerage under false pretences.

The STF said Jain used to identify himself as “ambassador” and “advisor” to create a sense of credibility and lure private individuals and companies into fraudulent job and business deals.

Jain has also been accused of issuing fake diplomatic and press ID cards without
authorisation.

A police source said Jain had once been associated with controversial godman Chandraswami and international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

Chandraswami had apparently helped Jain move to London after the family business ran into losses following his father’s death. Jain is believed to have opened several companies in London. According to investigating agencies, these companies were used to hide unaccounted money.

In 2011, Jain had been booked in a case related to the recovery of an illegal satellite phone. The case is still pending in court.

“The accused had been running this office (fake embassy) since 2012. Jain’s father-in-law Anand Jain, a local named Ishwar Singh and domestic help Hemant Kumar Rajwanshi were present at the office when the STF sleuths conducted the raid.

Ishwar and Hemant have agreed to become government approvers, said a police officer on the condition of anonymity.

“We suspect that his primary target was to run some shell companies and facilitate hawala transactions for others,” the officer added.

Additional director-general of police Amitabh Yash told reporters in Lucknow that an FIR had been registered against Jain at Kavi Nagar police station and he was being interrogated.

Jain used to live in the same building where his office was located. Reporters who gathered near the house on Wednesday afternoon were shoved away by a woman who later got into a car and sped away. A servant slammed the main gate shut as soon as the car left.