At his new London home in Belgrave Square, Lalit Modi finds royals, old business families as neighbours

IPL founder Lalit Modi and Singapore-based model-turned-investor Gurpreet Gill Maag. The Maags had committed $2 million in investment in Modi's Ion Care, but stopped at $1 million when the venture failed to take off. Following a March 2022 high court judgment dismissing the deceit claim, Maag has now filed an appeal.

Lalit Modi’s pictures with model-actress Sushmita Sen had the social media in a frenzy earlier this week. It was all fun and friendly. Around the same time, Modi's legal team was hard at work preparing to face an appeal lodged by another model: Gurpreet (Blu) Gill Maag.

The appeal follows the March 2022 high court judgment which dismissed Singapore-based model-turned-investor Maag’s deceit claim against Modi, although Modi was ordered to pay the balance of $800,000 with interest.

Maag through her company Quantum Care had invested $1 million in Lalit Modi’s cancer venture, and was suing him alleging deceit and breach of contract. She maintains that Modi had enticed her into investing by making misleading/false claims of several high-profile individuals backing his venture.

Modi denies the allegations, saying that he knows a lot of important personalities and that several such names represent a wish list of people. The venture never took off. During the February 2022 trial, Lalit Modi and his son Ruchir had given evidence and were cross-examined in court.

“Right from the start of my case, I was under no misgiving that despite the obviousness of the deceit claim, it still needed to measure up to the very high legal bar set out by the court. So much as the original judgment on the deceit claim was disheartening, it only served to strengthen my resolve to the Court of Appeal to recognise the merits of my case and treat it with fairness. Justice delayed but not denied,” Maag tells me.

BlackLion Law LLP representing Lalit Modi confirms that the appeal has been listed for February 2023.

Lalit Modi had first floated the idea for franchise-based cricket in India in the mid-1990s - it eventually took off in 2008 in the form of the Indian Premier League, adding money to cricket’s glamour. Sushmita Sen became the first Indian to be crowned Miss Universe in 1994.

And while the Lalit Modi-Sushmita Sen jodi has and will continue to generate interest, nothing can match the scale of information that seeps out from court documents and arguments. So when the appeal is heard, there are bound to be new details that will throw more light on Lalit Modi’s lifestyle and what keeps him busy.

Modi came to the UK in 2010 – he maintains he left India due to security threats – and there has always been speculation about his residence and nationality. He did live at 117 Sloane Street for several years, and news reports continue to regurgitate the grandeur of that place. However, Modi now lives in a house in nearby Belgrave Square, where he moved late last year.

The Sloane Street house falls in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, while his Belgrave Square abode comes in the Borough of Westminster and is a Grade 1 listed building. The distance between them can be covered in less than a 5 minute walk, so the shift should still keep him and his family close to their favourite haunts. Both are marquee properties and come with their own charms. However, it is not entirely clear whether the move to Belgrave Square represents a downgrade or an upgrade.

Belgrave Square, as the name suggests, has a private garden in the centre which has the statues of explorers Christopher Columbus and Prince Henry of Portugal among others. Belgrave Square is favourite among the diplomatic community as around a dozen embassies are located there.

Among the notable individuals who once owned homes or still live there are the Barclay Brothers, owners of The Telegraph newspaper and Ritz Hotel, Sheikh Mohammad the ruler of Dubai, Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and senior members of the Qatar and Kuwait royal families.

When Modi is not travelling outside the UK, he can choose from several of his favourite watering holes in London, located not far from his home. The Chiltern Fireplace is one such favourite where his June 2016 party was a big hit. Going by his social media posts, he seems to have spent much time with Sushmita Sen outside the UK.

When I asked Blu whether she has seen Lalit Modi’s latest exploits, she told me: “I do not follow Lalit Modi on social media or otherwise, which would suffice to say I have no interest in his private life.”