Vanuatu set to cancel Lalit Modi's passport

Fugitive cricket administrator Lalit Modi's Vanuatu passport is set to be cancelled on orders from the country's prime minister Jotham Napat after a request by the Indian government and based on "recent revelations" about him, people familiar with the development said on Monday.

- Neeraj Chauhan and Rezaul H Laskar

The move will potentially make Lalit Modi an illegal alien in the UK as he recently applied to the Indian high commission in London to surrender his Indian passport after obtaining Vanuatu citizenship.

The face behind the IPL (Indian Premier League), the former cricket administrator is the subject of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe. He fled to the UK in May 2010 and has lived there since then.

On Monday, the office of Napat, who last month became the premier of Vanuatu, a chain of 80 islands in the South Pacific, said in a statement: "Prime Minister Jotham Napat has today directed the Citizenship Commission to cancel the Vanuatu passport issued to Lalit Modi following recent revelations in international media." The statement quoted Napat as saying: "I have instructed the Citizenship Commission to immediately begin proceedings to cancel Mr Modi's Vanuatu passport."