Panaji: The Goa police on Thursday charged 13 people in court in connection with the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub fire that left 25 dead and several others injured in December last year, officials said.
Night club owners are among the 13 accused, a police official said.
The Anjuna police filed a 4,150-page charge sheet before the Judicial Magistrate Class I at Mapusa in connection with the case in which the statements of 305 witnesses were recorded, he said.
A fire occurred on 6 December 2025 at a nightclub in Arpora, North Goa, killing 25 people and injuring several others.
Among the accused in the charge sheet are Ajay Gupta, Gaurav Luthra and his brother Saurabh Luthra, all partners of M/s Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP, which owned Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub. All three accused are currently in judicial custody, according to police.
The prosecution also named the employees of the nightclub, Rajiv Modak (company, managing director), Vivek Singh (general manager) and Bijay Kumar Singh (operations manager). They are also in judicial custody.
The other accused named in the charge sheet are Roshan Redkar, then sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, and Raghuvir Bagkar, then secretary of the panchayat, both currently in custody, and Priyanshu Thakur (nightclub manager) and Rajveer Singhania (bar manager), who are out on bail.
The Anjuna police also charged Mayur Kolwalkar and Mohammad Afif Abdulsab Bateri, officials of the event management company that organized the show at the club that evening.
Surinder Kumar Khosla, a British national who is currently on the run, was also named as an accused in the indictment. Police said a blue horn notice has been issued against him.
The police have registered an FIR against the accused under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 125 (endangerment to human life) and 287 (negligent handling of fire and inflammable material endangering human life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Later, BNS sections 338 (forgery of valuable securities), 336 (forgery), 340 (use of forged documents), 61 (criminal conspiracy), 238 (destruction of evidence), 241 (destruction of electronic records) and 3(7) (committing a crime with common intent) were added against the club owners.
