‘I’m just a partner': Detained Goa nightclub owner's aide on fire that killed 25

Being escorted out of a vehicle by the Delhi Police, Ajay Gupta was surrounded by several media personnel who asked him questions about the deadly fire.

Ajay Gupta, a business partner of Saurabh Luthra, the owner of the Goa nightclub where a deadly fire broke out days ago, gave his first remark on Wednesday since being detained by the Delhi Police.

Ajay Gupta, business partner of the owner of Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, being brought to Crime Branch Office after he was detained. (PTI)

Being escorted out of a vehicle by the Delhi Police, Ajay Gupta was surrounded by several media personnel who asked him questions about the fire, safety arrangements in place at the nightclub and whereabouts of the owners.

"I am just a partner. I don't know anything," Gupta said, after being flooded with the questions.

At least 25 people, five of them tourists, died in a fire at ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’, a popular nightclub in Goa's Arpora on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Shortly after the fire, Saurabh Luthra and Gaurav Luthra, the two primary owners of the nightclub, flew to Phuket in Thailand on an IndiGo flight.

An Interpol Blue Corner Notice has been issued against them, and a Look Out Circular (LOC) had been issued against Ajay Gupta before he was finally detained in Delhi.

Gupta will now be flown to Goa for further questioning in the case.

Here are some key developments in the case so far:

1. Brothers fled to Thailand: The Luthra brothers boarded a New Delhi–Phuket IndiGo flight at 5.30 am on Sunday, barely hours after the fire, authorities said. Investigation agencies in India are now in touch with authorities in Thailand to geolocate Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra and are trying to get them deported based on an arrest warrant as soon as possible.
2. Blue-corner notice in place: An Interpol Blue Corner notice is in place against the brothers, and LOCs were issued against Ajay Gupta and Surinder Kumar Khosla, a British citizen, Deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Varsha Sharma had said.
3. Saurabh Luthra ‘deeply shaken’: Before reports of the Luthras fleeing to Thailand surfaced on Tuesday, Saurabh Luthra, one of the primary owners of ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’ had issued a statement, expressing remorse over the loss of lives in the fire incident. “In this hour of irreparable sorrow and overwhelming distress, the management stands in unwavering solidarity with the families of the deceased as well as those injured, and conveys its heartfelt condolences with utmost sincerity,” a part of Luthra's story on Instagram had read.
4. Bulldozer action on Goa beach shack: Romeo Lane, a Vagator beach shack owned by Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, was demolished by authorities in Goa after the deadly fire. Another club part of the Romeo Lane chain in Assagao was sealed before that, news agency PTI reported. Action has been initiated against both properties as they were involved in disputes.
5. Club built without construction licence? As probe into the fire intensified, Arpora panchayat head Roshan Redkar said that the nightclub was built without a construction license. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses at the scene earlier held pyroguns used during a dance performance at the club responsible for the fire. Witnesses had told HT said the blaze was triggered when fireworks from the device came into contact with the bamboo-and-fibre-sheet thatched roof.