Man opens fake embassy, creates 4 fictitious nations

“West Arctica”, “Saborga”, “Lodonia”, “Poulvia” — these were among fictitious nations a Ghaziabad man claimed to have represented as a self-styled diplomat while operating their bogus embassies from his rented house less than 35 km from Delhi.

A cursory internet search reveals that “West Arctica” is a non-profit body for climate action and an unrecognised micronation in Antartica, Lodonia is a micronation (a self-declared entity but not officially recognised as nation) in southern Sweden. Similar searches for Saborga and Poulvia yielded little result.

The “diplomat” was working out of the “consulate”, which also hoisted “flags” of these “nations” and a fleet of luxury cars with special blue coloured number plates parked outside, the police said.

The conman’s elaborate deception, however, came to an end on Tuesday when the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF) arrested Harsh Vardhan Jain and uncovered a stash that included Rs 44.7 lakh in cash, foreign currencies, multiple forged diplomatic passports and 18 fake diplomatic number plates.