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Goa police detain Ajay Gupta after Look Out Circular over nightclub fire which killed 25
A Look Out Circular (LOC) had been issued against the detained Gupta, and another person identified as Surinder Kumar Khosla.
The Goa Police on Tuesday detained Ajay Gupta, an alleged partner of Luthra brothers, who owned the fire-ravaged nightclub wherein 25 persons were killed, PTI news agency reported.
A Look Out Circular (LOC) had been issued against the detained Gupta, and another person identified as Surinder Kumar Khosla, a senior police official said earlier today.
Both Gupta and Khosla, a British citizen, came under the police scanner hours after the 'Birch by Romeo Lane' nightclub owners Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra fled to Thailand. The fire tragedy in the nightclub on Saturday led to the deaths of 25 people.
Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Varsha Sharma, while addressing a press conference at Anjuna police station in North Goa, said an LOC had been issued against Gupta and Khosla, according to the PTI report. “Khosla is a British citizen,” Sharma said.
Police have so far arrested five persons, including the nightclub’s chief general manager, Rajiv Modak, general manager Vivek Singh, bar manager Rajiv Singhania, gate manager Riyanshu Thakur and Bharat Kohli.
How did owners flee to Thailand after fire?
Saurabh Luthra and his brother Gaurav fled the country merely five hours after the fire at their nightclub in Arpora village of Goa.
The first alert regarding the fire at the nightclub was received by the police at 12:04 am on Sunday. After the fire, the owners of the club, the Luthra brothers, prominent Delhi businessmen, boarded a flight from New Delhi to Phuket, Thailand, by 5:30 am on Sunday.
The owners took the IndiGo 6E 1073 flight on December 7, according to the Goa Police. According to trackers, the flight landed in Phuket after 11 am on Sunday.
The police reached the Luthras' residence in Delhi on Monday, following which they released a statement confirming that the owners had fled.
A look-out notice against the Luthra brothers, via the Bureau of Immigration (BoI), had already been issued on Sunday evening.
