Lalit Modi’s brother Samir Modi arrested in Delhi on rape charges

Samir Modi, brother of fugitive businessman Lalit Modi, was arrested on Thursday by personnel of Delhi’s New Friends Colony police station on charges of rape, Delhi Police said.

The complainant is a former employee of Godfrey Phillips who has alleged that Samir Modi sexually assaulted her repeatedly since 2019.

The complaint was formally filed on September 10, 2025. In response, the lawyers representing Modi have claimed that the allegations are part of an attempt to extort money.


Samir Modi, who is the son of Godfrey Phillips India chairperson Bina Modi, has long been at the center of a bitter family and corporate feud within the Modi business empire founded by his late father, industrialist K.K. Modi.

The youngest of three siblings — with former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and businesswoman Charu Modi — he was ousted from the board of the tobacco major on August 7 last year following an acrimonious fallout with his mother and other directors.

The arrest comes just months after he was acquitted in a defamation case brought against him by three independent directors of Godfrey Phillips — Lalit Bhasin, Nirmala Bagri and Atul Kumar Gupta.

The directors had alleged that their reputations were damaged by remarks made by Modi in the wake of a stormy boardroom battle. In May this year, a south Delhi court freed him of the charges.

The feud spilled into the open in May 2024, when Samir Modi alleged he was assaulted during a board meeting by his mother’s personal security officer.

He accused Bina Modi and senior directors of conspiring against him. However, after investigating the claims, Delhi Police did not file charges against his mother or Bhasin, though her security officer Surendra Prasad was named in the case.

Bhasin, a senior lawyer who later stepped down from the company’s board, had last year said that “defamatory, libelous, outrageous allegations” had been made against him, which damaged his reputation.