Port Vila: Vanuatu's Prime Minister Jotham Napat on Monday has directed the Citizenship Commission to cancel the Vanuatu passport issued to Mr Lalit Modi. This comes days after Lalit Modi, founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL), applied to surrender his Indian passport at the Indian High Commission in London.

"I have instructed the Citizenship Commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Mr Modi's Vanuatu passport. 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," said Prime Minister Napat.

The Prime Minister emphasised that holding a Vanuatu passport is a privilege, not a right, and that applicants must seek citizenship for legitimate reasons.

"None of those legitimate reasons include attempting to avoid extradition, which the recent facts brought to light clearly indicate was Mr Modi's intention," stated the Prime Minister.

The Government of Vanuatu has significantly strengthened the due diligence aspect of its Citizenship by Investment Programme over the past four years. This has resulted in a marked increase in applications failing the enhanced scrutiny undertaken by the Vanuatu Financial Intelligence Unit. The improved process implemented several years ago includes triple-agency checks, including Interpol verification.

India continues legal pursuit against Modi

Earlier, responding to a question on reports of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi acquiring citizenship in Vanuatu, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the Indian government is aware of his application for surrendering his passport at the High Commission of India in London and continues to pursue all cases against him as per the law.

"The same will be examined in light of extant rules and procedures. We are also informed that he has acquired citizenship in Vanuatu. We continue to pursue the case against him as required under law," said the spokesperson.

Lalit Modi, who previously served as the vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), is accused of bid-rigging, money laundering, and violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA). He left India in 2010 while under investigation for financial misconduct, including unauthorised fund transfers.

(with agency inputs)