PANAJI: Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, owners of the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, are expected to land at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport tomorrow, where they will be taken into custody by the Goa Police, sources told The Goan.
A Goa Police team is scheduled to leave for Delhi late tonight to formally take custody of the accused from central agencies. Sources clarified that the Goa Police are not travelling to Thailand and that custody of the Luthra brothers will be secured in Delhi itself. They will then be produced before a Delhi court, where the Goa Police will seek transit remand to bring them to Goa.
As per the tentative schedule, the brothers are expected to reach Goa late tomorrow night after the transit remand process. They will be taken directly to the Anjuna Police Station for interrogation and are likely to be produced before the Mapusa Court on December 17.
The Luthra brothers had left the country for Phuket following the December 6 fire at their Arpora nightclub, which claimed 25 lives. A Delhi court last week rejected their plea for transit anticipatory bail, dismissing their claim that the Thailand trip was for business and not an attempt to flee.
Meanwhile, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has taken suo motu cognisance of the tragedy, appointing Advocate Rohit Bras De Sa as amicus curiae. The court flagged illegal structures as the core issue and noted serious lapses by local bodies, including the grant of commercial licences to unauthorised buildings. The matter will be heard next on January 8.
