Goa court grants bail to 2 nightclub managers, rejects GM’s bail plea

PANAJI: A Goa margaret court on tues granted bail bond to debar manager Rajveer Singhania and logic gate manager Priyanshu Thakur of the nightclub, where a devastating fire killed 25 people earlier this month, but rejected a similar plea filed by the club’s general manager Vivek Singh.Rajiv Modak, the chief general manager of the nightclub Birch By Romeo Lane, has not applied for bail yet.Advocate Vinayak Parab, who appeared for Singhania and and Thakur said additional sessions judge Dvijple Patkar granted bail to the two on the condition that they shall not, directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case.The court has reserved its verdict in the bail plea filed by Bharat Singh Kohli, who managed the restaurants on behalf of the Luthras, and is expected to deliver its ruling on December 26.The court has also reserved its verdict in the anticipatory bail plea filed by village sarpanch Roshan Redkar and panchayat secretary Raghuvir Bagkar. “The court has heard final arguments and has reserved the matter for order on December 30,” lawyer Nitin Sardesai, who represented the sarpanch Redkar, said.Four managers of the nightclub were among those arrested by the police for the fire that engulfed the entire premises of Birch By Romeo Lane, on December 6. Hours later, the Luthra brothers fled to Phuket. Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra were later deported from Thailand and arrested by Goa Police on their return to Delhi on December 16.In their initial statement, the brothers insisted that they were not responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nightclub and this responsibility lay on the managers hired for the purpose.Redkar and Bagkar, who have also been named as accused in the case, for having failed to act against the allegedly illegal nightclub, have argued that they could not be held personally liable in the case since the decision to grant a trade licence was taken by the panchayat body collectively and that, a trade licence issued by the panchayat does not automatically permit the licence holder to run the premises without other mandatory permissions.Meanwhile, the Goa Police has ‘rearrested’ Ajay Gupta, the ‘sleeping’ business partner of the Luthras on charges of cheating and forgery, after the ongoing investigation revealed that the company used a forged health no objection certificate to apply for various licences to run the premises.The FIR, filed on December 7, 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.