Vanuatu PM orders Lalit Modi passport cancellation on India’s request

The move will potentially make Lalit Modi an illegal alien in the UK

Published on: Mar 10, 2025, 12:01:59 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar, Neeraj Chauhan

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Vanuatu Prime Minister Jotham Napat has ordered the cancellation of former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi’s passport following a request from the Indian government and based on “recent revelations” about him.

Former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi. (HT PHOTO)

The move will potentially make Lalit Modi an illegal alien in the UK as he recently applied to the Indian high commission in London to surrender his Indian passport after obtaining Vanuatu citizenship.

The former cricket administrator is the subject of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe. He fled India to the UK in May 2010 and has lived there since.

On Monday, the office of Napat, who last month became the premier of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the South Pacific, said in a statement: “Prime Minister Jotham Napat has today directed the Citizenship Commission to cancel the Vanuatu passport issued to Lalit Modi following recent revelations in international media.” The statement quoted Napat as saying: “I have instructed the Citizenship Commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Mr Modi’s Vanuatu passport.”

Suggesting that Vanuatu’s systems should have automatically triggered a rejection of Lalit Modi’s case, Napat said, “While all standard background checks, including Interpol screenings, conducted during his application showed no criminal convictions, I have been made aware in the past 24 hours that Interpol twice rejected Indian authorities’ requests to issue an alert notice on Mr Modi due to lack of substantive judicial evidence. Any such alert would have triggered an automatic rejection of Mr Modi’s citizenship application.”

Napat emphasised that holding a Vanuatu passport is a privilege and “not a right”, and that applicants must seek citizenship for legitimate reasons. He added, “None of these legitimate reasons include attempting to avoid extradition, which the recent facts brought to light clearly indicate was Mr Modi’s intention.”

The Vanuatu government said it has significantly strengthened due diligence for its Citizenship by Investment Programme over the past four years, and the process now involves triple-agency checks, including Interpol verification.

Some of these steps were taken after the European Union revoked a visa-free travel agreement with Vanuatu last December over its “golden passport” programme or Citizenship by Investment Programme.

Officials in Delhi said a request had been sent to the government of Vanuatu to cancel the passport along with details of Lalit Modi’s case.

The Indian high commission in New Zealand handles relations with Vanuatu as India does not have a mission in the Pacific Island country. New Delhi has stepped up its outreach to the Pacific Island states as part of efforts by members of Quad to counter China’s growing presence in that region and Vanuatu is among the countries that have benefited from Indian aid.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week that Indian authorities were pursuing the case against Lalit Modi as “required under law”. Jaiswal said Lalit Modi’s application to the Indian high commission in London for surrendering his passport will be “examined in light of extant rules and procedures”.

Lalit Modi is not a wanted person in the UK. The ED’s probe against him is based on a complaint filed by Chennai Police in 2012 for alleged cheating in IPL’s overseas telecast rights.

In a post on X on March 8, Lalit Modi said: “True facts. No court of law in India has a case pending against me personally. It’s only media fiction. Fifteen years have gone. But they keep saying we are going after me – more than welcome to. But first file an application for any wrongdoing, instead of just imagining I have been charged with something wrong.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Chauhan
Neeraj Chauhan is a senior journalist with Hindustan Times and an investigative reporter specialising in national security, terrorism, organised crime, narcotics, corruption, financial crime and complex investigations. With over 21 years of experience across Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Pioneer, he has built deep expertise in India’s internal security and law-enforcement landscape. Neeraj has extensively covered India’s principal investigative, intelligence and security agencies, including the NIA, CBI, ED, IB, R&AW, MHA and other central security forces. His work has included deeply reported investigations into terrorism, terror financing, cross-border crime, narcotics trafficking, cybercrime, financial fraud and political and corporate corruption. He has reported on some of the most significant terror attacks and security developments in India over the past two decades, including the Delhi serial blasts, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2019 Pulwama terror attack and the recent Pahalgam attack. His reporting has also chronicled the rise and decline of the Indian Mujahideen, the activities and subsequent crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Islamist extremist networks, the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, insurgencies in the Northeast and Maoist violence. Some of Neeraj’s major breaking stories are in Aryan Khan drug case, Sushant Singh Rajput suicide, interception of a 3,000-kg Afghan heroin consignment worth about ₹21,000 crore at Mundra port, Sri Lanka easter bombings, Aarushi-Hemraj murders in Noida, 2G scam, coal block allocation scam, AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal and major bank frauds and extradition cases involving Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya. His reporting is marked by an ability to cultivate sources, analyse confidential and complex documents, and follow investigations over several years—from the initial breakthrough to chargesheets, trials and international legal proceedings. He specialises in making complicated security and investigative developments accessible while examining their wider implications for governance and public policy. A Chevening South Asia Journalism Programme Fellow at the University of Westminster, Neeraj also spent time at the Financial Times as part of the fellowship. He was also a Robert Bosch Media Ambassadors India-Germany Fellow, studying at the University of Tübingen and working with Der Tagesspiegel in Berlin. He has previously taught investigative journalism and crime reporting as a guest faculty member at the Times School of Journalism. Over more than two decades, Neeraj has established himself as an authoritative voice on India’s national security and investigative landscape, with his reporting closely followed by officials, investigators, lawyers, policymakers and readers seeking insight into some of the country’s most complex and consequential developments.Read More

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