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'Intent to avoid': What police said after Goa club owners fled to Thailand on IndiGo flight after fire kills 25
The Goa police stated that they are coordinating with the CBI’s Interpol division to apprehend Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, the owners of the nightclub.
Goa police have said that the owners of the nightclub in Arpora, where a fire killed at least 25 people around midnight on Saturday, fleeing the country to Thailand, “shows their intent” of avoiding the police investigation.
This comes after Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, the Delhi-based owners of the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, fled to Phuket on an IndiGo flight at 5:30 AM on Sunday, roughly six hours after the fire tragedy began.
“The Bureau of Immigration at Mumbai was contacted, and it was found that both the accused had taken the 6E 1073 flight (New Delhi to Phuket) at 5.30 AM on 7th December, i.e. immediately after the incident, which had taken place around midnight. It shows their intent to avoid police investigation,” deputy superintendent of police and public relations officer Nilesh Rane said.
The news of an IndiGo flight comes as mass cancellations across India have disrupted passengers, with thousands of flights cancelled at multiple airports this week. The issue is echoing everywhere, from the streets to parliament.
The officer said that the police are coordinating with CBI’s Interpol division to apprehend the two brothers.
“The Goa police have taken further steps to coordinate with the Interpol Division of CBI to apprehend both Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra at the earliest,” Rane added, with the Delhi Police saying the CBI has approached Interpol for a blue notice against the two.
The Delhi Police stated on Monday that the family is from Delhi’s Outram Lines, Kingsway Camp. A Delhi Police officer said: “The family — brothers, a sister and parents — has been living there for years. The Goa Police came to the Model Town police station, and notices were given at each address which was found. At their residence, we met their mother and questioned her about her sons’ whereabouts”.
The Goa nightclub fire tragedy
Twenty-five people, including four from a Delhi family, were killed and six injured after a massive fire ripped through their nightclub – Birch by Romeo Lane – in the coastal village of Arpora in north Goa around 11.45 PM on Saturday. The authorities have said electrically detonated pyroguns shot off during a belly dancing programme likely caused the deadly blaze.
A combination of factors — key safety lapses, including an inadequate number of exits and the use of pyroguns, a thatched roof and stacks of alcohol — intensified the fire, causing it to engulf the 300 square metre establishment in a matter of minutes.
Twenty of the victims were staffers at the club, while five were tourists.
Goa Police booked the brothers along with other unnamed individuals for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (section 105), for acts endangering the lives and personal safety of others (125 (a) (b)), and for negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter (section 287) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in the first information report (FIR) at 9.30 AM on Sunday.
Four people were arrested on Sunday: the chief general manager of the club, Rajiv Modak, 49; the gate manager, Priyanshu Thakur, 32 – both residents of Delhi; the bar manager, Rajveer Singhania, 32; and the general manager, Vivek Singh, 27 – both residents of Uttar Pradesh. The police made the fifth arrest on Monday, with Bharat Singh Kohli, 49, a resident of Punjabi Basti in New Delhi, being taken into custody. Kohli was “managing the daily operations of the establishment on behalf of the owners.”
“Investigation is progressing on priority, and further action will follow,” Rane said, adding that the police issued summons to government officials involved in issuing various permits and licences to the establishment to verify compliance lapses and procedural violations.
