The embattled Cricket Chief forfeits Indian Citizenship and gets bounced from Vanuatu
Vineeta Rao
Auckland, March 10, 2025
Lalit Modi, currently a fugitive from Indian law agencies, filed an application at the Indian High Commission in London to surrender his Indian passport. He has been living in his 7000 sq ft London home since dramatically fleeing the country in 2010, claiming threats on his life.
He will now reportedly be moving into our neighbourhood in the Pacific after acquiring the Citizenship of Vanuatu.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “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.”
Despite his being persona non-grata in India, Cricket lovers will always have a soft spot for the man who gave them the Indian Premier League (IPL), with its associated spectacle, cheerleaders and intense team rivalries.
Celebrity Lifestyle
Before his life on the run, Modi was the wunderkind of the Cricket world, acquiring a celebrity status in his own right. From founding the IPL, to being referred to as ‘LaMo’ by cricket fans to dating Bollywood actresses, his life was the stuff of legends, until fall from grace.
As the self-proclaimed architect of the IPL, he wore many hats. He was also the first Chairman and League Commissioner of the IPL, he ran the show for three years until 2010. He was the League Commissioner for the Champions League and Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the richest Cricket governing body in the world, from 2005 to 2010.
He caused a stir by accusing then Minister Shashi Tharoor of having an indirect free stake in the Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL franchise. Tharoor resigned and the team later accused Modi of harassing them because he wanted another team in the franchise.
A short while later, after the 2010 IPL season ended, accusations of corruption, misconduct, and financial irregularities emerged.
The BCCI launched an investigation against him. In 2013, after a Committee found him guilty and banned for life. Modi has been steadfast in denying any wrongdoing, blaming political rivalries for the hot water in which he found himself.
No case against Modi?
Modi’s lawyer Mehmood Abdi told the media, “They want to pursue the cases, but there is no case, in fact. All the cases that are being talked about in 18 years, no court has charged him, and there has been no charge sheet either by any agency.”
Modi also slammed news agencies for allegedly spreading ‘fake news.’
“This is called #fakenews. In other words, keep creating fake news so you bolster your #readership or #viewership. The only thing that I have done single-handedly is create a globally loved product (IPL), which you lap up like there is no tomorrow. None of you thought of it, and I mean none of you can create or will ever create.”
About Lalit Modi
Modi was born in 1963 with a silver spoon, the scion of a wealthy industrialist family, known for the Modi group, which spans sugar mills, beverages, entertainment and personal care products. He went to America to complete a degree in Electrical Engineering and business administration but left after he was arrested for cocaine trafficking and second-degree kidnapping, receiving a two-year prison sentence.
Modi chose Vanuatu presumably because of its ‘Citizen by Investment’ (CBI) scheme. This allows wealthy individuals, even those with a somewhat chequered past, to buy citizenship by investing in the country. Several countries, including New Zealand, offer this or similar schemes for citizenship and residency.
Modi has always shown a flair for the dramatic. Those following his ongoing saga will no doubt remember how he responded to the BCCI’s show cause notice with 15,000 pages of documents which had to be specially wheeled in. Many suspect his Vanuatu citizenship to be another similarly dramatic gesture, even as the Indian legal system pursues a case against him, after dubbing him an economic offender.
Bad News ensues
In what seems like more bad news for the absconding businessman, his country of choice, Vanuatu, has cancelled the Citizenship granted to him, according to a Statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Jotham Napa.
“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 intention,” the statement added.
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
