Goa nightclub fire: Police file chargesheet against 13 persons, including club owners
Panaji (PTI): The Goa police on Thursday filed a chargesheet in a court against 13 persons in connection with the fire at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, which claimed 25 lives and left several others injured in December last year, officials said.
The 13 accused include owners of the nightclub, a police official said.
The Anjuna police filed the 4,150-page chargesheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mapusa, in connection with the case, in which statements of 305 witnesses have been recorded, he said.
The blaze occurred at the nightclub located in Arpora, in North Goa, on December 6, 2025, wherein 25 persons were killed and several others were injured.
The accused in the chargesheet include Ajay Gupta, Gaurav Luthra and his brother Saurabh Luthra, all partners of M/s Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP, which owned the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub. All three accused are currently in judicial custody, according to the police.
The chargesheet has also named the nightclub's employees, Rajiv Modak (corporate, general manager), Vivek Singh (general manager) and Bijay Kumar Singh (operations manager), as accused. They are also in judicial custody.
The others accused named in the chargesheet are Roshan Redkar, then sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, and Raghuvir Bagkar, then secretary of the panchayat, both currently in judicial custody, and Priyanshu Thakur (nightclub gate manager) and Rajveer Singhania (bar manager), who are out on bail.
The Anjuna police have also chargesheeted Mayur Kolwalkar and Mohammad Afif Abdulsab Bateri, officials of an event management company which had organised a show at the club on that evening.
Surinder Kumar Khosla, a British National, who is currently on the run, has also been named as an accused in the chargesheet. A Blue Corner Notice has been issued against him, the police said.
The police had registered an FIR against the accused under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 125 (endangering human life) and 287 (negligent handling of fire and combustible material endangering human life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Later, BNS sections 338 (forgery of valuable securities), 336 (forgery), 340 (using forged documents), 61 (criminal conspiracy), 238 (destruction of evidence), 241 (destruction of electronic records) and 3 (7) (committing offence with common intention) were added against the club owners.
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Three arrested for killing Buddhist woman monk in Himachal
Shimla (PTI): Three people have been arrested for allegedly murdering a Buddhist woman monk in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh nearly a month ago, police said on Friday.
The accused -- Gagan Sharma (23), Vishal (23) and Gaurav Sharma (20), all residents of Mandi -- were arrested on Thursday night, police said.
According to police, the 78-year-old Buddhist woman monk, Orje Shoki, was found murdered in a cave near Sarkidhar village, following which a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to nab the accused.
Mandi Superintendent of Police (SP) Vinod Kumar said that during the investigation, more than 50 suspects were questioned and DNA samples of several suspects were also collected.
After a detailed investigation, the accused were arrested from different locations on Thursday night, he said.
Kumar said all the accused are drug addicts and they committed the crime with the intention of looting the victim, so that they could buy drugs.
Efforts are on to nab two more accused wanted in the case. They will be put behind bars soon, the SP said.
