Luthra brothers’ custody likely by Tuesday: Police

ATeam up of the exchange Bureau of investigating (CBI) and the Goa constabulary feature arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, and are hopeful of securing custody of the fugitive Luthra brothers — Saurabh and Gaurav, who fled to Phuket hours after the December 5 blaze at their illegal nightclub killed 25 people — by Tuesday, a Goa government official said.“We hope to have custody of the brothers at least by Tuesday. Their deportation process is underway and we are in close coordination with the CBI and the Thai authorities to secure their custody after the completion of deportation formalities,” said a Goa Police official familiar with the investigation.The brothers were detained by the Royal Thai Police from their Phuket hotel on 11 December and shifted to a detention centre in Bangkok. They are expected to be brought back to India — first to Delhi, then to Goa — where they face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.Goa Police have arrested six people so far: five managerial staff and a sixth, Ajay Gupta, identified as a business partner of the Luthras who ran the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora. Police are searching for a seventh suspect, Surinder Kumar Khosla, the British property owner who signed a 2023 lease with Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP, the firm under which the club operated. The Luthra brothers and Gupta are listed as partners.Khosla is believed to be out of the country. The property lacked a construction licence, occupancy certificate, fire department NOC, and faced a demolition notice.Among the victims were 20 basement kitchen staff trapped with no escape after flames engulfed the floor above. Four members of a Delhi family — three sisters and the husband of one — also died, with 23 of the 25 victims succumbing to suffocation.Authorities said the fire began around 11.45 pm. The brothers booked tickets to Thailand at 1.17 am and flew out at 5.30 am; a lookout notice followed 24 hours later.The FIR, filed last Sunday, charges them under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 125(a) and (b) (endangering life and personal safety), and 287 (negligent conduct with fire or combustible matter) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.Luthras’ passports were cancelled by the ministry of external affairs on Tuesday at Goa police’s request, followed by an Interpol Blue Corner notice. Police raided their Delhi homes that Sunday, but they had fled.A Delhi court rejected their anticipatory bail plea, in which they claimed fear of being “lynched” in Goa amid a crackdown on illegal bars and clubs. Meanwhile, state authorities have sealed two nightclubs among four establishments for violating safety norms.