Arya News - Police investigating Sunday`s devastating Goa nightclub fire said the establishment`s owners have fled to Thailand, according to reports.
Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Police investigating Sunday"s devastating Goa nightclub fire said the establishment"s owners have fled to Thailand, according to reports.
Twenty-five people were killed and six injured in the blaze at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Arpora, located in India"s southwestern coastal state of Goa.
Authorities have arrested at least four people in connection with the fire and have issued arrest warrants for nightclub owners Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra, who are brothers.
A Monday statement from Goa Police said the brothers had fled to Phuket a few hours after the fire began, The Times of India and Financial Express reported.
The Luthra brothers had departed on a 5:30 a.m. local-time Sunday IndiGo flight, authorities said.
Goa Police said that after a formal complaint was recorded against them, officers raided their Delhi addresses. Lookout notices for the brothers have since been circulated by the Bureau of Immigration, Goa Police said.
Authorities are now coordinating with Interpol to arrest the two men.
The fire erupted shortly before midnight Saturday.
A magisterial inquiry into the fire found major procedural lapses by local authorities, All India Radio News reported.
Failing to seal off the premises, permitting it to operate illegally since March 2024, was named among the lapses.