Prateek Tanmay
2 min readPanajiUpdated: May 29, 2026 05:21 AM IST
The ED Panaji zonal office has attached properties valued at over Rs 11.01 crore under provisions of the PMLA in connection with the investigation pertaining to the alleged illegal operation of the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Goa.
A fire at the nightclub in North Goa’s Arpora on December 6 last year killed 25 people, including five tourists. Brothers Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, who ran the club, took a flight from Delhi to Phuket at 5.30 am on December 7, just hours after the incident, which took place just before midnight the previous day. They had booked the tickets at 1.17 am, just 90 minutes after the blaze. The Goa Police had booked the Luthra brothers and the club’s partners, manager, event organiser and other managing staff and charged the accused with culpable homicide.
A magisterial inquiry, set up by the government to probe the fire at the club had found that the local panchayat “colluded” with the owners of the property, allowing the club to be run illegally without a valid trade licence. The panchayat “failed in its statutory duty” and took no action to seal the property or shut its operations, the inquiry said.
The ED had initiated a probe on the basis of FIRs registered by the Goa Police at Anjuna police station and Mapusa police station against Luthra brothers and others under various provisions of the BNS, 2023. In a statement, the ED said the FIRs pertain not just to the fire incident on December 6, 2025, but also to offences for forgery of documents, including fake and fabricated No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and other statutory documents used for the purpose of obtaining regulatory approvals.
The ED said a probe under PMLA has revealed that the establishment was being operated by M/s Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP without obtaining mandatory statutory approvals, including the fire NOC.
