Courtesy: Google
The Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Jotham Napat, has ordered the cancellation of the passport issued by the nation to the Indian ex-IPL boss Lalit Modi after being made aware about Interpol rejecting the request by Indian authorities to issue an alert notice on him. The 52-year-old stated that any such alert is an automatic rejection of the citizenship application in Vanuatu, and it would be the same in regards to Lalit Modi.
Notably, as per the report from the BBC, the Vanuatu PM, who is the head of state of the country of more than 80 Pacific ocean islands, issued the order to reject the citizenship of Lalit Modi came just three days after he had received the same. It is important to note that the Indian businessman is wanted in a corruption case in Delhi for allegedly rigging bids as the IPL Chairman more than a decade ago.
I have instructed the citizenship commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Lalit Modi's Vanuatu passport: PM Napat
After leaving India for the UK in 2010, where he has lived since then, Lalit Modi has been in the radar of the Indian authorities, but their multiple attempts at extraditing him, have been unsuccessful. In his official statement on the matter, the Vanuatu PM said, “I have instructed the citizenship commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Lalit 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 Lalit Modi due to lack of substantive judicial evidence. Any such alert would have triggered an automatic rejection of Lalit Modi's citizenship application,” he added.
Moreover, Lalit Modi had earlier submitted the application at the Indian High Commission in London to surrender his Indian passport after he had acquired the citizenship of Vanuatu.
