Goa club blaze: 5th accused arrested as police look for owners in Delhi

THe Goa constabulary feature rushed a team up to new delhi to retrace Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, directors of the company that ran the nightclub, where 25 people were killed after a fire ripped through it in the coastal village of Arpora on Saturday night, even as the person in charge of the daily operations at the establishment was arrested on Monday.On Sunday, the club’s chief general manager, gate manager, bar manager, and general manager were arrested. The Goa Police identified the fifth arrested accused as Bharat.The Luthra brothers have been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 125 (a) (b) (acts endangering the lives and personal safety of others), and 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter).Safety lapses, including an inadequate number of exits and a thatched roof, and stacks of alcohol, intensified the fire at Birch by Romeo Lane, an Island Club.The Luthra brothers run a multi-city restaurant chain and two other establishments in Goa. Two of the three Goa establishments face demolition over environmental violations. On Sunday, the authorities sealed all three establishments in Goa.Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Sankalp Amonkar raised the matter of the illegal club this year in the Goa assembly. He cited illegal constructions in a highly ecologically-sensitive area containing paddy fields and salt pans by large-scale back-filling of a water body for commercial activities, without permissions. Amonkar added that the authorities failed to act despite a village panchayat’s demolition notice to the club in April 2024.Branded as Goa’s first island club, Birch by Romeo Lane began operations in December 2023. The demolition notice was issued after an inquiry found that it could not have been issued a construction licence, given that the land it was built was located on a salt pan.A fire department’s report on Sunday confirmed that the club was operating without a No Objection Certificate. “The fire appears to have transitioned rapidly from the incipient stage to the fully developed stage due to the presence of highly combustible interior finishes (wooden panels, partitions, décor), high fuel load density in restaurant and bar areas, presence of flammable furnishings and plastics,” the department said in its report.“...the basement had inadequate ventilation and obstructed means of egress, which contributed to the entrapment of the victims.” The department said basements represent high-risk zones due to limited natural ventilation, delayed smoke stratification, restricted egress routes, and rapid accumulation of toxic combustion products such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide.“The fatalities are consistent with exposure to toxic smoke and oxygen-deficient conditions, which are commonly observed in enclosed-space fires, particularly in basement compartments.” The fire department said the basement configuration meant rapid smoke accumulation, high concentration of carbon monoxide, zero-visibility conditions in escape routes, which meant most of those who perished did so within minutes of fatal smoke exposure.