NEW DELHI: A man running a fake embassy out of a rented house in Ghaziabad has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF).The accused, Harsh Vardhan Jain, was pretending to be a diplomat from a made-up country called “West Arctica,” a senior official said on Wednesday.Jain, a resident of Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad, was caught on Tuesday. According to the preliminary investigation by STF’s Noida unit, he was tricking people and companies by promising them job placements in foreign countries. He is also suspected of being involved in a hawala racket through fake shell companies.To make himself look genuine, Jain used digitally edited photos of himself with top Indian leaders like the prime minister and the president. This helped him gain people’s trust.“Following the standard operating procedure, the pilots informed the authorities and returned the aircraft to bay,” the airline added.Additional Director General of Police Amitabh Yash said, “The accused was running the bogus embassy from a rented house and projected himself as a consul or ambassador of non-existent countries such as West Arctica, Saborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia.”Jain even used cars with fake diplomatic number plates to appear more authentic. During questioning, it was revealed that he had connections in the past with controversial godman Chandraswami and international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. He was earlier booked in 2011 for illegally possessing a satellite phone.

The STF found and seized:

An FIR has been registered at the Kavi Nagar police station. Officials said more investigation is going on to uncover the full scale of the scam.