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What is a blue notice? CBI's big move to hunt Luthra brothers in Thailand
CBI is “vehemently pursuing with Lyon headquartered Interpol to quickly issue blue notices against Luthras so that they don’t flee to some other country.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking to get blue notices issued against Delhi-based entrepreneurs Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, who fled to Phuket hours after a deadly nightclub fire in north Goa killed 25 people.
The probe agency is “vehemently pursuing with Lyon headquartered Interpol to quickly issue blue notices against Luthras so that they don’t flee to some other country,” an earlier HT report quoted an officer who did not want to be named.
CBI’s Global Operations Centre has located over 200 fugitives abroad in recent years, bringing back 136 through extradition or deportation. Officials say the same process is now being applied to the Luthra brothers.
What is a blue notice?
India’s CBI is the nodal agency for all Interpol communication. Interpol issues seven types of colour-coded notices: red, yellow, blue, black, green, orange and purple.
A blue notice allows member countries to collect information about a person’s identity, location or activities in connection with a criminal investigation. It is not an arrest request but helps countries track a suspect globally.
A red notice, on the other hand, is a request to locate and arrest a person for prosecution or to serve a sentence.
A yellow notice alerts global police to locate missing persons, often minors, or to identify people unable to identify themselves.
These notices enable seamless sharing of crime-related information across borders, critical in cases where suspects flee immediately after an incident, as in the Goa nightclub fire.
India-Thailand extradition treaty
India and Thailand have a formal extradition treaty in place since 2015, and officials say cooperation between the two countries in criminal matters has been strong. Several fugitives have been deported from Bangkok in the past decade, giving investigators confidence that the Luthras will be brought back soon.
According to officials, efforts are also underway to secure an arrest warrant from a Goa court and share it with Thai authorities through the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
“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… We believe they will soon be brought back,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.
How the Luthras fled
Police said the businessmen boarded an IndiGo flight to Phuket at 5.30am on Sunday, roughly six hours after the tragic blaze, before Goa Police could reach their north Delhi home.
By Monday, teams confirmed they were already in Thailand.
The fire at Birch by Romeo Lane broke out around 11.45pm on Saturday, gutting the 300 sq m property. Twenty of the 25 victims were staff members; five were tourists, including four from a Delhi family.
The FIR, filed on Sunday morning, names the brothers and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, endangering lives and negligent handling of combustible materials under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
