Friday brought fresh momentum to the quest for justice in Goa’s nightclub inferno as ED squads raided the lairs of ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’ proprietors Saurabh Luthra, Gaurav Luthra, and Ajay Gupta. Operations spanned Delhi, Haryana’s Gurugram, and Goa, scrutinizing over eight premises in a money laundering dragnet.
The trigger: a deadly fire on December 6, 2023, engulfing the Arpora venue during a dance bash, resulting in 25 fatalities. Post-tragedy audits uncovered the club’s perch on illegally repurposed khazan salt pan land, bolstered by sham approvals.
Under PMLA, ED is peeling back layers of alleged financial impropriety. Searches hit high-profile spots like Kingsway Camp’s Outram Lane in Delhi and Gurugram’s Tatvam Villa. In Goa, multiple club-linked sites were combed.
Corruption charges extend to ex-sarpanch Roshan Redkar and panchayat secretary Raghuvir Bagkar, raided for abetting fake licenses. Surinder Kumar Khosla also came under the scanner amid queries on land conversion scams.
This isn’t just about one fire—it’s a reckoning for Goa’s loosely regulated party ecosystem, where violations bred disaster. Police probes had already netted some suspects, but ED’s forensic financial lens promises deeper revelations. As documents pile up, the raids underscore a commitment to holding the powerful accountable, offering solace to grieving families and a warning to rogue operators.