Goa: Goa Police on Tuesday issued a Look Out Circular (LOC) against two more owners of the fire-hit nightclub Birch by Romeo Lane—Ajay Gupta and Surinder Kumar Khosla—in connection with the tragedy that killed 25 people on Saturday. Senior officials confirmed that Khosla is a British national.
The LOC was issued just hours after nightclub owners Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra fled to Thailand. Police later confirmed that the duo escaped to Phuket, prompting authorities to initiate steps to bring them back.
At a press conference held at the Anjuna police station, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Varsha Sharma said Gujarat and Khosla have now been placed on the alert list to prevent any attempt to leave the country. Sharma added that Goa Police has sought the assistance of Interpol to trace and extradite Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra.
She said the Luthra brothers were not in Goa when the blaze occurred, but efforts to locate them began immediately after the incident. “All attempts are being made to get them back to India,” she said.
Sharma also confirmed that two senior Goa government officials—the then Director of Panchayat, Siddhi Halarnkar, and former Goa State Pollution Control Board Member Secretary, Shamila Monteiro—have been called to join the investigation as part of the widening probe.
So far, police have arrested five people in the case: the nightclub’s chief general manager Rajiv Modak, general manager Vivek Singh, bar manager Rajiv Singhania, gate manager Riyanshu Thakur, and staffer Bharat Kohli.
