‘Baron of Westarctica’ opened cos in leading Indian businessmen’s names?

Ghaziabad: A city court on Monday granted police five days' remand of Harshvardhan Jain, who ran a fake embassy from a Kavi Nagar bungalow that claimed to represent unrecognised ‘micronations' like Westarctica, Ladonia and Seborga till he was arrested last week by UP's special task force (STF). The 49-year-old Harshvardhan Jain also drove around in cars with fake diplomatic blue number plates that had ‘Honorary Consul Baron Westarctica' and ‘Honorary Consigliere Principato Di Seborga' engraved on them.The STF believes the embassy, which was in operation for nine years, was a facade for a suspected hawala business that Jain ran using shell companies and had sought his custody to interrogate him. Chief judicial magistrate Aishwarya Pratap Singh was convinced that the matter was a complex one and thorough interrogation of the accused was important for the recovery of forged documents and to throw light on the connections he claims to enjoy in govt ranks. Jain was arrested by STF on July 23 from the rented two-storey Kavinagar bungalow.Talking to TOI, assistant prosecution officer Uttam Tripathy said had obtained a list of 25 companies from various diaries of Jain, which need to be verified. He cited the STF FIR to argue that Jain floated companies in the name of Dhirubhai Ambani, (Gautam) Adani and Mittal (which one was not specified), and the police recovered seals and stamps of those companies from him. "We wanted his remand to take him to Delhi and Gujarat to verify details of the companies," he said.STF recovered two passports and two PAN cards from Jain. Tripathy said one passport was Indian and the other issued by ‘Samoga'. "When we contacted the protocol division of ministry of external affairs, we were told that no country by the name of Samoga exists," he said, adding both passports were signed by one Pushpa Ranjan."We found that there is a genuine person by that name in the passport division of MEA. The Indian passport is genuine, so it calls for proper investigation as to how the seal and signature of the same person were found in a passport issued by a non-existent country," Tripathy said.As for the PAN cards, one was issued in the name of Harshvardhan Jain and the other in the name of HV Jain. Tripathy told the court that to verify how two applications were placed for the issuance of a PAN card by the same person, they needed to find out links that Jain used.Jain was a frequent flier to the UK and Dubai. He was known to controversial astrologer Chandraswami.Raj Kumar Mishra, SP of Noida STF, said there are many dots in the line to connect. "We are preparing a list of questions for Jain," he said. "STF has also found 22 bank accounts in the name of Jain, 12 of which are in India."