Goa Nightclub Owners On Interpol List? These Are The Other Indians On It

The Luthra brothers – the owners of 'Birch by Romeo Lane', the Goa nightclub at which a fire killed 25 people last week – are India's newest (and unwanted) exports to Interpol's watch list.

The global policing organisation will likely be asked to issue a Blue Corner Notice - to collect additional information about a person's identity, location, or activities in relation to a criminal investigation – against Delhi-based Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra, sources told NDTV Tuesday.

The brothers left India for Thailand – on one of the handful of IndiGo flights not cancelled amid the airline's operational crisis – mere hours after the nightclub in Goa's Arpora region was to burn down. The late-night fire tore through a dance floor packed with weekend revellers.

READ | Restaurateurs To Fugitives: How Goa Fire Singed Luthra Brothers

The investigation so far has uncovered a number of worrying details, including the widespread of use of flammable material, the lack of fire exits, and the absence of fire extinguishers, underlining the Goa Police filing charges culpable homicide, not amounting to murder.

READ | Goa Club Where 25 Died Built Like Tinderbox. Crackers Lit The Fuse

The focus of the investigation now switches to the brothers and the legal and diplomatic battle to track them down and extradite them from Thailand, so they can answer for their crimes.

READ | Interpol Notice Likely Against Goa Club Owners Who Fled To Thailand

But they are not the only ones evading Indian law enforcement authorities.

Name: Dawood Ibrahim

Case details: Arguably India's most-wanted crime boss, Dawood Ibrahim is accused of orchestrating the 1993 Mumbai serial bombs that killed 257 people and injured hundreds more.

He is the head of the D-Company gang – which, as an aside, has inspired several big-budget Bollywood blockbusters on organised crime – and is involved in worldwide drug trafficking, extortion, arms smuggling, and terror financing networks.

Intelligence sources say Dawood Ibrahim fled to Dubai back in 1986 after he was charged in a murder case and then jumped to Karachi in Pakistan – this was after the 1993 Mumbai bombings – from where he continues to run his criminal gang. On paper Pak denies it is sheltering Dawood Ibrahim, though India has provided evidence, including details of his assets and activities.

Dawood Ibrahim, the notorious boss of the D-Company criminal gang (File).

Over the years multiple Indian governments have pushed for his extradition. This includes the United Nations designating him a 'global terrorist' wanted by India and the United States.

Interpol notice on: According to the Union Home Ministry, in April 1983 a Red Corner Notice – indicating Ibrahim is a wanted individual – was issued. This remains in effect till today.

Interpol's notice and UN sanctions mean he cannot leave Pakistan.

Name: Nirav Modi

Case details: Modi, a diamond merchant by trade, is accused of orchestrating one of India's largest bank scams. He allegedly cheated the Punjab National Bank out of Rs 11,000 crore (some reports put the figure at Rs 13,000 crore) using fake documents to secure overseas loans.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have both charged him with criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust, and money laundering, and would love to get their hands the 54-year-old, whose extradition from the United Kingdom is still-pending.

Nirav Modi fled India in January 2018 weeks before the bank filed its first complaint.

Was he tipped off? The answer to that and many other questions remains unclear. What is clear, though, is that he moved between Hong Kong and other major financial centres before surfacing, like the notorious Mr X in 'Scotland Yard', the children's board game, in London.

Nirav Modi is accused of cheating the Punjab National Bank (File).

This was in March 2019. British media reports from the time said he moved into an eight-million GBP mansion in London and applied for asylum citing 'political persecution'.

But he was promptly arrested instead. UK courts approved his extradition in 2021 but his legal team has worked overtime since, throwing challenge after challenge to delay his return to India.

For now he remains in a London jail.

Interpol notice on: Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice in June 2018

Name: Mehul Choksi

Case details: The founder of the Gitanjali Group, jeweller Mehul Choksi is accused of partnering with Modi, his nephew, in the alleged PNB fraud. Investigators have said that companies linked to Choksi used fraudulent guarantees to con the bank's Mumbai branch into extending improperly secured loans.

Like Modi, Choksi fled India in January 2018; in fact, he left 24 hours after him.

And, like the proverbial 'Mr X', he re-surfaced as a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, having secured the Caribbean island's nationality under an investment programme. And, like his nephew, he too has cried of 'political persecution' as he fights to escape trial in India.

Mehul Choksi is in Belgium pending extradition to India (File).

In a sensational twist, in 2021 he claimed he had been 'kidnapped' and taken to the nearby island nation of Dominica. That claim has since been questioned.

Four years later he popped up in Antwerp – ostensibly for blood cancer treatment – only for the Belgian authorities to promptly arrest him, after which India pushed again for his extradition.

In October 2025 a Belgian court approved that extradition but, as expected, a month later Choksi filed appeals against that order, claiming he will be 'ill-treated' if returned to India.

Interpol notice on: In December 2018, after requests from the CBI and ED, Interpol released the Red Corner Notice. This was removed in 2022 on an appeal over human rights.

Name: Vijay Mallya

Case details: Perhaps the most high-profile name on this list, Vijay Mallya is accused of defaulting on an estimated Rs 9,000 crore in loans taken by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. The CBI and ED have filed multiple cases against him, including those linked to fraud and money-laundering.

Vijay Mallya left India in March 2016, just before legal action against him was stepped up; he told the courts he wanted to be closer to his children. He has since been declared a 'wilful defaulter'.

Vijay Mallya is in London and has challenged his extradition to India (File).

in December last year Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament some of Mallya's properties, worth Rs 14,131 crore, had been seized and handed to public and private sector banks.

For now he remains in the UK, on bail after his arrest in 2017. Like Modi, his extradition has been approved but the order has not been enforced as yet because of legal challenges.

Interpol notice on: Curiously, in Mallya's case Interpol never issued a notice. It was asked to by the ED in May 2016, but the request was turned down over technicalities.