Vanuatu set to cancel Lalit Modi’s passport
Lalit Modi's Vanuatu passport will be cancelled after India's request, making him an illegal alien in the UK amid ongoing investigations against him.
New Delhi Fugitive cricket administrator Lalit Modi’s Vanuatu passport is set to be cancelled on orders from the country’s prime minister Jotham Napat after a request by the Indian government and based on “recent revelations” about him, people familiar with the development said on Monday.
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 face behind the IPL (Indian Premier League), the former cricket administrator is the subject of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe. He fled to the UK in May 2010 and has lived there since then.
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 further 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 New Delhi said a request had been sent recently 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 doesn’t have a mission in the Pacific Island country. New Delhi has, in recent years, stepped up its outreach to the Pacific Island states as part of efforts by members of the 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 are 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”.
To be sure, 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 the T20 tournament’s overseas telecast rights.
In a post on his X account 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.”
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