Goa authorities on Tuesday began demolishing illegal properties connected to fugitive nightclub owners Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, stepping up action as Interpol issued a Blue Corner notice against the duo.
"This shack is illegally built on government land. It would be demolished on Tuesday. District administration has kept all the machinery ready," a senior CMO official said.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday ordered authorities to demolish the Romeo Lane beach shack at Vagator after completing all formalities.
The shack, built illegally on government land, was the third property owned by the Luthra brothers.
The district administration had already sealed the beach shack and another facility at Assagao in North Goa on Monday following the tragedy.
The brothers fled to Phuket, Thailand, within hours of the blaze that ripped through their Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Arpora around midnight on Saturday, killing 25 people — including 20 staff members and five tourists, four of them from Delhi.
Goa Police approached the CBI to coordinate with Interpol for the Blue Corner notice, which is issued to collect additional information about a person's identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.
A Red Notice calling for detention can only be issued after a chargesheet is filed and a non-bailable warrant is issued.
"Goa Police have taken further steps to coordinate with the Interpol Division of the CBI to apprehend both Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra at the earliest," a senior police officer said.
Dancer didn’t have business visa, said cops.
It was also revealed on Tuesday that Kazakh national Kristina, who was performing a belly dance at the nightclub when the fire erupted, did not have the required business visa to perform professionally in India.
A senior police officer at the Foreigners Regional Registration Office told PTI that Kristina, originally from Kazakhstan, had applied for a business visa but had not yet received approval. Without such permission, she cannot perform professionally in India.
Kristina, who goes by the Instagram name Kristina Sheikh, is a professional dancer with 272,000 followers. Videos on her profile show she had been performing regularly at the nightclub.
A video circulated on social media showed the bursting of electric firecrackers and flames appearing from the roof of the nightclub. It captured Kristina and band members rushing out in panic as the fire spread.
Chief Minister Sawant told reporters that electric firecrackers were the prima facie cause of the tragedy. Eyewitnesses said fatalities occurred due to narrow exits in the nightclub, located in the backwater of the Arpora river, some 25 kilometres from Panaji.
Five injured people were undergoing treatment at the government-run Goa Medical College and Hospital.