Panaji (PTI): The Thailand Police have detained Saurabh Luthra and his brother Gaurav Luthra, who fled India after a fire at their Goa nightclub claimed 25 lives, officials said on Thursday. 

The nightclub co-owners, against whom an Interpol Blue Corner Notice had been issued, were detained at the request of the Indian government, they said.

Both the accused have been detained at Phuket in Thailand, and a process is underway to bring them to India, senior officials confirmed to PTI.

The duo booked their tickets for Phuket through a travel portal at 1.17 am on December 7, within an hour of learning about the devastating fire at 'Birch by Romeo Lane', their nightblub at Arpora in North Goa, as per officials.

ALSO READGoa nightclub fire: Owners Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra fled to Phuket after tragedy, say police

At the time when police and administration were still battling the blaze and attempting to rescue staff, the two left India in the early hours of Sunday by an IndiGo flight.

The Goa Police had approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the issuance of the Blue Corner Notice against them.

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Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticised the Centre over the women's reservation and accused it of trying to use it as a "weapon" to tackle the opposition before taking up the delimitation exercise based on population.

"The Union government is not concerned about implementing reservations for women. If their concerns were genuine, they could have done it right away. Rather than doing that, the BJP-led Centre is thinking of using it as a weapon to tackle opposition and take up the delimitation exercise based on population," he told PTI in an interview.

"Hence, the women's reservation must be implemented immediately without showing delimitation as a reason," the DMK president added.

Expressing apprehensions on the proposed delimitation exercise, the CM said it was the DMK that raised the first voice asserting the rights of the state after realising that Tamil Nadu would be affected by the proposed exercise. He also attacked his rival and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami over the delimitation issue.

Recalling efforts made by the DMK to raise the issue of population-based delimitation, he said an all-party meeting and a meeting of CMs under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee seeking fair delimitation were convened. It sought to freeze delimitation for 25 years and stick to it based on the 1971 Census population.

"We urged the union government that states which successfully implemented population control programmes must not be punished," he added. 

The party came up with "Tamil Nadu poradum, Tamil Nadu vellum" (Tamil Nadu will struggle, Tamil Nadu will win) and this is DMK's stand, he said.

"However, Palaniswami, who is seeking votes for the entry of the BJP through the backdoor, has till date been mute over delimitation, and this is a betrayal of the people of Tamil Nadu."