New Delhi: The Indian agencies are in touch with the Thai authorities to geolocate Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, accused in the Goa nightclub fire incident, and are trying to get them deported based on an arrest warrant as soon as possible, instead of going through the cumbersome extradition process, people familiar with the development said.
Considering the friendly relations between Indian and Thai agencies in criminal matters – several fugitives have been brought from Bangkok in the past decade –, officials feel that Luthras will be brought back soon.
Meanwhile, on the request of the Goa police, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is pursuing to publish blue notices against Luthras - which allows Interpol member countries to locate and detain a wanted person in their jurisdiction - so that they don’t flee further from Thailand.
Also Read | Goa nightclub fire: Owners Saurabh, Gaurav Luthra fled to Thailand hours after blaze killed 25, say police
“An arrest warrant against Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra is being obtained from a court (in Goa). They are being geolocated with the help of CBI’s Global Operations Centre (GOC) and other central agencies. Senior officials are already in touch with our Thai counterparts and efforts are on to arrest them in Phuket based on the arrest warrant, which will be sent through the ministry of external affairs (MEA), and get them deported to India. We believe they will soon be brought back,” said an officer, who asked not to be named. Over 200 fugitives involved in financial frauds, terrorism, drugs smuggling, cyber crimes etc have been geolocated abroad in the last few years by CBI’s GOC while 136 fugitives have been brought back through the extradition or deportation route.
{{/usCountry}}“An arrest warrant against Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra is being obtained from a court (in Goa). They are being geolocated with the help of CBI’s Global Operations Centre (GOC) and other central agencies. Senior officials are already in touch with our Thai counterparts and efforts are on to arrest them in Phuket based on the arrest warrant, which will be sent through the ministry of external affairs (MEA), and get them deported to India. We believe they will soon be brought back,” said an officer, who asked not to be named. Over 200 fugitives involved in financial frauds, terrorism, drugs smuggling, cyber crimes etc have been geolocated abroad in the last few years by CBI’s GOC while 136 fugitives have been brought back through the extradition or deportation route.
{{/usCountry}}CBI, this officer said, “is also vehemently pursuing with Lyon headquartered Interpol to quickly issue blue notices against Luthras so that they don’t flee to some other country”.
Investigators are also trying to find out if Luthras or any of their family members moved any funds abroad (including to Thailand) in the last couple of days, or in the past and if they already have any investments there.
“We are going through bank details, property investments and all other financial transactions to ascertain their intentions because they planned to flee after the incident,” said a second officer.
India and Thailand signed a formal extradition treaty in 2013, which came into force on June 29, 2015. Before that, the two countries cooperated in matters of extradition on the basis of a 1982 extradition arrangement, which provided the legal framework for seeking extradition of fugitives, including those involved in terrorism, transnational crimes and economic offences.
Some of the extraditees sent by Thailand to India on the request of New Delhi include Kosaraju Venkateswara Rao (in 2006), Gurpreet Singh Bhullar (2009) and Jagtar Singh Tara (2015). In 2015, India also secured the first extradition of a Thai arms dealer, Willy Naruenartwanich alias Willy Naru, to stand trial in a case of a criminal conspiracy for illegal procurement of sophisticated arms and ammunitions from China, for supply to Indian insurgent groups.
In January this year, CBI managed to bring one Janarthan Sundaram, accused of siphoning over ₹87 crore of investors’ money through a ponzi scheme, from Bangkok. Earlier, in 2022, a National Investigation Agency (NIA)-wanted Khalistani, Kulwinderjit Singh alias Khanpuria, who was involved in attacks on Dera Sacha Sauda and Punjab police, was brought through deportation route from Thailand.
An extradition is a formal route, where agencies need to file a charge sheet, share it with the country where a fugitive is hiding. Deportation on the other hand is a more agency-to-agency cooperation mechanism, in which a fugitive is detained by requested state and sent back based on primary facts shared by the requesting country and an arrest warrant.
The Goa police on Monday said that brothers Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra fled to Phuket in Thailand on Sunday morning, a few hours after the devastating fire in their night club-cum-restaurant Birch by Romeo Lane in north Goa killed 25 persons.
On Monday, the Goa police failed to find them at their residence in north Delhi and investigation showed that they fled to Phuket at 5.30am from Mumbai.