PANAJI: The owners of the Birch by Romeo Lane club at Arpora, the Luthra brothers, in which a deadly fire on Dec 6 killed 25 people, had moved the Sessions court at Mapusa in North Goa for anticipatory bail in a forgery case.
The sessions court at Mapusa on Friday granted interim relief till Tuesday to Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, in connection with an FIR in which it is alleged that they forged a health officer’s no objection certificate (NOC) to obtain an excise licence.
According to a Times of India report, the Luthras moved for anticipatory bail on Friday, and interim relief was granted till Tuesday, counsel for the Luthras, A V Pavithran, said. The police have been asked to submit their say in the matter.
In their application, the Luthra’s said “the apprehension of arrest arises from the malafide arrest of the partner of the applicant, namely Ajay Gupta, solely and wholly on the premise of him being one of the partners of the LLP, namely Being GS Hospitality Arpora Goa LLP, the LLP in whose name the alleged forged NOC was issued by the primary health centre, Candolim,” the anticipatory application stated.
In the FIR registered at Mapusa police station, Candolim PHC health officer, Dr Roshan Nazareth, stated that prior to Dec 13, 2025, authorised persons of Birch, which is run by Being GS Hospitality LLP, in which the Luthra brothers, Saurabh and Gaurav, are directors, impersonated and forged his signature and made a forged entry in the register to obtain a health NOC.
“This was done by the accused persons intentionally, and they prepared a no objection certificate issued by me in order to seek an excise licence,” Nazareth said in the FIR. “Thereafter, the accused persons fraudulently and knowingly produced the forged NOC as genuine before the excise department to carry out the documentary transaction towards the excise licence, and they succeeded in getting the excise licence, thereby cheating the authorities,” said Mapusa police.
The Mapusa police on Dec 23 arrested Ajay Gupta, a partner of Birch by Romeo Lane, in connection with allegedly forging a health officer’s NOC to obtain an excise licence.
Mapusa police on Monday moved a transfer warrant application before the JMFC, Mapusa, to take custody of Gupta, who was earlier remanded in judicial custody, in the main case of the fire, registered at Anjuna Police station.
After hearing arguments in the matter, the JMFC granted a transfer warrant for Gupta to Mapusa police on Tuesday to arrest him. Meanwhile, Saurabh and Gaurav have been remanded to four days police custody by JMFC, Mapusa, in connection with the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane.
When the fire broke out at the nightclub at 11.45 pm on Dec 6, there were more than 150 tourists attending. A preliminary investigation by police and the directorate of fire services concluded that the fire broke out after electric firecrackers and pyroguns struck the wooden ceiling made of flammable materials during the event.
Another partner Surinder Kumar Khosla – a British citizen, who was also present in Goa on the day of the fire, fled to the UK the next day. The Luthra’s fled to Thailand on the same night, within hours of the fire, while Ajay Gupta fled to Delhi the same night and admitted himself into a hospital.
While the Luthras were attending a wedding in Delhi at the time of the fire, Khosla and Gupta were very much in the coastal state in close vicinity of the ill-fated club.
Instead of helping the victims, they fled to avoid the law, the police have claimed.
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