Panaji: The Goa Police on Thursday filed a chargesheet naming 13 people in connection with the devastating fire at Birch near Romeo Lane in Arpora, north Goa, in which 25 people were killed on the intervening night of December 6 and 7.
The 4,150-page indictment, which includes 306 witnesses, was presented before the Magistrate in Mapusa. The accused, including the Luthra brothers, were produced before the court on Thursday and copies of the charge sheet were handed over.
The chargesheet names Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, co-owners and directors of M/s Getting GS Hospitality Arpora LLP, who are currently in judicial custody, along with 11 others, including the club’s managing director Rajeev Modak (49) and gate manager Priyanshu Thakur (32) from Delhi; Bar manager Rajveer Singhania (32) and general manager Vivek Singh (27) are from Uttar Pradesh; Bijay Kumar Singh, who was arrested from Jharkhand; Ajay Gupta, business partner of the Luthras family.
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Also named are Arpora sarpanch Roshan Redkar and panchayat secretary Raghuveer Bagkar, who are also currently in custody, and British national Surender Kumar Khosla, the current owner of the property rented by the Luthra brothers, although he is on the run.
Additionally, Mayur Kolwalkar, the ‘director’, and Mohammad Afif Abdul Samad Pathiri, managing director of K-Dance Events Private Limited, an event management company that used to organize dance shows accompanied by fireworks at the venue every weekend, have also been named as accused in the case.
Bharat Singh Kohli, the director who claimed he was not responsible for the day-to-day operations of the club, was not named as an accused.
According to the indictment, the accused committed offenses under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to culpable homicide), 125 (a) (b) (act done so recklessly or negligently as to endanger human life or personal safety of others), 336 (forgery), 338 (using a forged document as genuine), 340 (2) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy), and 238 (destruction of a forged document). Evidence), 241 (Destruction of Documents), and 3(7) (Acts of Omission) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The indictment alleges that due to the “irresponsible actions of the defendants,” 25 people were killed, causing “irreparable loss and shattered 25 families, reflecting gross criminal negligence, complete disregard for human life and the defendants’ complete failure to adhere to legal and safety standards.”
The indictment also notes that “all of the managers” who were arrested said they had been in contact with the Luthras and received “calls from them indicating that they were aware of the severity of the accident and the injuries prior to the escape.”
The brothers fled to Phuket in Thailand within hours of the fire that engulfed the building, but were deported after their passports were suspended and detained by Thai authorities.
The indictment also states that the Luthras, along with Ajay Gupta and Surender Kumar Khosla, “fraudulently entered the phrase ‘H. No. 502/1 RT-8 “By forging a license instrument and obtaining permissions from various authorities.”
The structure from which the nightclub operated was illegal, as it was built on a salt basin, surrounded by water on all four sides, had only one narrow entrance with the other exit locked at all times, and had no house number issued to it. The investigation revealed that the accused used a forged house number of a building belonging to a hotel in an adjacent plot of land to apply for licenses such as business license from the village panchayat, production licence, and approval to operate, among others.
Such acts were done “in collusion” with the local sarpanch and panchayat secretary, according to the charge sheet.
The indictment also stated that the accused was running the establishment without fire permits, equipment or employee training despite having a large kitchen and capacity to serve 150 people.
25 people, including four from a family from Delhi, were killed and six others injured after a massive fire broke out at the nightclub – Birch by Romeo Lane – in the coastal village of Arpora in north Goa around 11.45 pm on Saturday.
Even as the fire was consuming the building, the two brothers booked tickets to Thailand at 1.17am on Sunday and traveled at 5.30am the same day, authorities said. A probation notice was issued against them approximately 24 hours later.
Authorities also said that firearms that were electrically detonated during a belly dancing program likely caused the fatal fire. A combination of factors – major safety lapses, including an insufficient number of exits and the use of perogons, a thatched roof, and piles of alcohol – intensified the fire, engulfing the 300-square-metre building within minutes.
