What is Westarctica? Ghaziabad 'baron' arrested for running fake embassy of this 'nation'

The Noida unit of Uttar Pradesh's STF on Wednesday arrested a man named Harsh Vardhan Jain, who allegedly ran a fake embassy in Ghaziabad's Kavinagar. He reportedly identified himself as an ambassador in India for “Westarctica, Saborga, Poulvia, Lodonia”. The accused moved in cars with diplomaticnumber plates, and had 12 passports of "micronations", forged documents with the seal of the Ministry of External Affairs, forged PAN cards, and seals of 34 different countries and companies. He also possessed two forged press cards and Rs 44.70 lakhs in cash.

Westartica is a micronation founded by a US Navy officer. However, the nation is not recognised by any government across the world. Jain used to call himself the Baron of the fictionalcountry. To impress the victims of his fraud, he would use his photos morphed with the President and the Prime Minister and other eminentpersonalities.

Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Law and Order, Uttar Pradesh, said, “Noida unit of UP STF busted an illegal embassy running in Ghaziabad and arrested Harsh Vardhan Jain, who was running an illegal West Arctic Embassy by taking a rented house in Kavinagar, calling himself Consul/Ambassador of countries like Westarctica, Saborga, Poulvia, Lodonia, and travels in vehicles with diplomatic number plates.”

“Four vehicles with diplomatic number plates. 12 diplomatic passports of micronation countries. Forged documents with the seal of the Ministry of External Affairs. Two forged PAN cards. 34 seals of different countries and companies. 2 forged press cards. Rs 44,70,000 in cash. Foreign currency of many countries. Documents of many companies have been recovered,” ADG Law and Order further stated.

The police said he used to lure his victims with fake promises of providing jobs abroad. He would also run a Hawala racket through shell companies. He was also arrested in 2011 for possessing satellite phones.

What is Westarctica?

In 2001, US Navy officer Travis McHenry founded the micronation called Westartica. He calls himself the Grand Duke of Westartica, which is located in Antarctica and has a land area of 620,000 square miles. He claims the country has 2356 citizens but none of them live there. The Grand Duchyof Westarticais located in California, which spreads awareness about climate change and Antarctica. The so-called country has a flag, currency.