MAPUSA
Several government department officials have come under the police scanner in the investigation into the fatal fire at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Arpora, with Goa Police indicating that more officers will soon be summoned.
DIG (Crime & Range) Varsha Sharma IPS confirmed that police will call “certain department officials” for questioning but declined to identify the departments involved.
She also refused to comment on the possibility of arrests, stating that such details were “part of the investigation process.”
Sharma was responding to questions on whether senior officers from the Fire Department, Excise, Panchayat, Town and Country Planning (TCP) or Tourism were being probed for either granting unofficial approvals or overlooking regulatory violations at the nightclub.
Meanwhile, two of the three suspended government officials linked to the case have already appeared before investigators.
Then Director/Additional Director of Panchayats Siddhi Harlankar and then Member Secretary of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, Shamila Monteiro were interrogated, Sharma said.
However, the third suspended officer – Raghuvir Bagkar, Secretary of the Arpora–Nagoa Village Panchayat – has not responded to the police notice issued to him.
“We will give him another opportunity to join the investigation,” the DIG stated.
