Luthra Brothers Were At Delhi Wedding When Fire Ravaged Goa Club

As a deadly blaze ripped through a Goa nightclub, resulting in the deaths of 25 people, its co-owners were attending a wedding in Delhi. Shortly after getting information about the fire at Birch By Romeo Lane, Saurav and Gaurav Luthra made hurried plans to travel to Thailand.

Documents submitted in a court in Goa showed that the accused booked tickets to Phuket at 1.17 am on December 7, around an hour after the fire broke out, and had departed from India by 5.20 am.

On Thursday, officials said the Luthra brothers were detained in Thailand, even as a Delhi court rejected their anticipatory transit bail pleas, citing the duo's conduct and the gravity of the offences. "They left, they concealed, and they are now seeking leniency," the Goa government's lawyer told a court, pointing out that they had fled immediately after the fire incident and were evading the legal process.

The Goa Police said the two brothers are accused of injury causing death, manslaughter and murder by organising a fire show "without taking proper care and caution and without providing fire safety equipment, other safety gadgets."

After Gaurav Luthra, 44, and his brother Saurabh, 40, fled to Phuket, an Interpol Blue Corner notice was issued on December 9 following a request from the Goa police routed through the CBI.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant assured that the brothers would be brought back to India at the earliest to face legal action.

The state also banned the use of fireworks, sparklers, pyrotechnic effects, flame thrower-type devices, smoke generators and similar equipment inside tourist establishments. Fireworks were said to have caused the blaze at Birch by Romeo Lane.

The third accused and silent partner and investor in the night club Ajay Gupta, who was present in Goa when the fire broke out on December 6 in Arpora, did not visit the club but took a flight to Delhi the next morning. Police did not find him at his Gurugram residence but found him two days later admitted to a hospital in Lajpat Nagar. He has been sent to police custody for seven days.