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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Mumbai Metro lines 9 and 2B open for commuters
Mumbai (PTI): Commercial operations on the first phases of Mumbai Metro corridors 9 and 2B began on Wednesday morning, a day after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the mass-transit routes, officials said.
While the Metro 9 marks the first direct connectivity between a suburb in Mumbai and a part of Thane city in the metropolitan region, the Line 2B will provide the first metro connectivity on the Harbour Line in Mumbai.
The 5.6-km elevated Phase 1 stretch of Metro Line 9 comprises four stations -- Dahisar East, Pandurangwadi, Miragaon and Kashigaon. The 5.53-km Phase 1 of Metro Line 2B has five stations, including Deshbhakt N G Acharya Udyan (Diamond Garden), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Chowk, Deonar, Mankhurd and Maharashtra Nagar–Mandale.
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According to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Line 9 is expected to cut travel time between Mira-Bhayandar in Thane district and Mumbai to around 30 minutes from the current one to two hours. Built at Rs 6,607 crore, it will eventually provide seamless connectivity to south Mumbai through interlinking with other lines.
With the addition of the two new lines, Mumbai’s operational Metro network has expanded to six corridors, including Line 1 (Ghatkopar-Andheri-Versova), Line 2A (Andheri West-Dahisar East), Line 7 (Dahisar East-Andheri East) and the underground Line 3 (Colaba-Bandra Kurla Complex-SEEPZ).
As per MMRDA, the revised timetable for Line 2A and Line 7 came into effect on Wednesday, aimed at improving frequency, predictability and overall commuter experience.
It said that with the inauguration of Line 9, Metro Line 2A will now operate as a standalone corridor between Andheri West and Dahisar East, with services from 5.50 am till around 11 pm and a peak frequency of about six minutes.
The integrated Line 7-9 corridor (Gundavali to Kashigaon), spanning 19.79 km, will operate from 5.50 am to 11 pm, with a peak frequency of under six minutes and 276 services on weekdays.
Metro Line 2B (Phase 1) services commenced at 6 am and will run till around 10.30 pm at intervals of approximately nine-and-a-half minutes, operating 209 services daily, according to officials.
MMRDA said the integration of Line 7 with Line 9 enables direct connectivity from Andheri East to Mira-Bhayandar, while Lines 2A and 7 will function as separate corridors.
A seamless interchange facility at Dahisar station will allow passengers to switch between Lines 2A and 7 without exiting the “paid” (ticketed) area.
