Fugitive billionaire Lalit Modi’s troubles deepened on Monday after the Prime Minister of Pacific Island nation Vanuatu, Jotham Napat, ordered cancellation of the passport that his government had issued to Modi earlier.
The Hindustani Times reports that the decision from Napat came days after the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that Modi had sought cancellation of his Indian passport.
“I have instructed the Citizenship Commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Modi’s Vanuatu passport,” Napat said in a statement.
Napat said that the Vanuatu passport for Modi, wanted in India for financial frauds, was issued after “all standard background checks, including Interpol screenings” and they went ahead with granting passport to Modi after it was found that “Interpol had twice rejected India’s requests to issue an alert notice on Modi due to lack of substantive judicial evidence”.
Soon after the announcement of the Vanuatu government, Modi posted a message on X along with videos and photos that showed him visiting Vanuatu. “Vanuatu (is) a beautiful country. You must put on your bucket list. Away from all the pollution and noise. Truly heavenly country,” said Modi in the message.
Modi, best known as the founder of the Indian Premier League, is wanted in India but has lived out of India since 2010.
Last week, the Ministry confirmed that Modi had reached out to the Indian High Commission in the UK seeking cancellation of his Indian passport.
“It is learnt that Lalit Modi has made an application for surrender of his passport at the High Commission of India in London. The same will be examined in light of extant rules and procedures. We are also given to understand that he has acquired citizenship of Vanuatu. We continue to pursue the case against him as required under law,” said Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
Vanuatu has been part of India’s Indo-Pacific diplomacy in recent years and the island nation constitutes a part of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) under which India provides development assistance to the island states scattered in the Pacific Ocean. FIPIC was launched in 2014.
