More than Rs 2 crore paid as bribes in Romeo Lane Club case?

PANAJI: An insider who works with a prominent administrative department of the Goa government, tasked with handling environment and pollution clearances, has alleged that more than Rs 2 crore must have exchanged hands and paid in total to the various departments, including the village panchayat, excise and police departments to keep the Birch by Romeo Lane club running, in spite of several written complaints filed from time to time against the club operators.

The original land owner of the plot on which the club was illegally constructed – a Goan by the name of Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar, had written several complaint letters to various departments, including the Arpora-Nagoa village panchayat, the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), the Anjuna police station and other authorities. Amonkar has acknowledged copies of all the complaints, but no action was taken, he alleges, adding that the club was illegal in every sense of the word.

ALSO READ: Surinder Kumar Khosla was in the club on the day of the fire, heard screams of victims trapped inside, but didn’t help, fled to UK, alleges original landowner

M/S Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP, which operated the restaurant till the fire incident, has Saurabh Luthra, Gaurav Luthra and Ajay Gupta as partners. It entered into a licence agreement with the property owner, Surinder Kumar Khosla, on November 28, 2023, to lease a property called ‘Cordonicho Agor’ at Sankwadi Arpora measuring 31,200 square metres. The plot is on salt pan land, on which no construction is permitted, yet the club construction (read repair) was permitted by the panchayat, with the panchayat secretary Raghuvir Bhagkar and sarpanch Roshan V Redkar signing on most of the permissions. The duo has probably pocketed more than Rs 25 to 40 lakh in bribes, alleges the administrative officer, adding that the panchayat secretary and the sarpanch indulged in glaring irregularities

An establishment or trade license dated December 16, 2023, was issued to the company M/S Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP for running “a bar and restaurant-cum-night club” by the village panchayat of Arpora-Nagoa. It expired in March 2024. The panchayat also issued three no-objection certificates (NOCs) to property owner Khosla – for electrical connection, water connection, and to carry out repair work in the house at Sankwadi. The NOCs for electrical and water connections were issued on December 21, 2022, while the NOC to carry out repairs, read reconstruction, was issued on March 25, 2023. “This was in spite of knowing that the property was under dispute, a civil case was going on against Khosla and the documents provided by Khosla, Gupta and the Luthra’s were fake,” Amonkar said.

The Goa government has suspended three officials from the time, responsible for issuing various permissions – Siddhi Tushar Harlankar, the then Director/Additional Director of Panchayats; ⁠Dr Sharmila Monteiro, the then Member Secretary of Goa State Pollution Control Board; and Raghuvir D Bagkar, the then Secretary of village Panchayat, Arpora-Nagoa. Bagkar has applied for anticipatory bail, which is being hotly contested by the Goa police.

ALSO READ: Land on which Romeo Lane club in Goa stood, illegally changed from ‘Salt Pan land’ to ‘Settlement Zone’ says original Goan owner

The Anjuna police have strongly contested thge anticipatory bail application of Raghuvir Bhagkar, secretary of the Arpora-Nagoa panchayat, stating that he played a “prime role” in making the “illegal structure operational, which directly resulted in mass casualties”.

The police investigation has revealed that Bhagkar, in collaboration with the Arpora-Nagoa sarpanch Roshan V Redkar, illegally issued establishment and trade licences for the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub without following mandatory procedures.

The police stated in their written statement that as a govt official, Bhagkar held final authority for supervising establishment and trade licence procedures within the panchayat’s jurisdiction. However, he allegedly misused his position in connivance with the sarpanch to facilitate licence issuance without following required statutory procedures, including giving notice to the other panchayat members. Licenses were issues within days, which means huge amounts of bribes were paid to both Bhagkar and Redkar, alleges our source, explaining that it normally takes several weeks and a couple of physical inspections before such a license is issued.

Amonkar has also blamed the ward member of panch of the ward in which the club stood. The ward member is also responsible for this tragedy, he alleged.