Vanuatu has decided to cancel the passport granted to former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi, who has been under probe by various Indian agencies in connection with forex violations and a Rs 425-crore TV rights deal for the 2009 IPL with World Sports Group.
Modi said last week that he wanted to surrender his Indian passport as he had acquired citizenship in Vanuatu, a country of islands in the Pacific Ocean.
However, a media release by Prime Minister Jotham Napat’s office in Vanuatu Monday said he had directed the Citizenship Commission to cancel the Vanuatu passport issued to Lalit Modi.
Napat said, “I have instructed the Citizenship Commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Mr Modi’s Vanuatu passport. 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.”
“None of those legitimate reasons include attempting to avoid extradition, which the recent facts brought to light clearly indicate was Mr Modi’s intension [sic],” read the statement.
After attending only one interrogation session with Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials in Mumbai concerning these forex violations, Lalit Modi, who has been described as an economic offender by Indian investigating agencies, fled to the United Kingdom in May 2010.
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