Delhi-based restaurateurs Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra, who had fled to Phuket just hours after a fire killed 25 people at their Goa nightclub, were deported from Thailand on Tuesday afternoon and were taken into custody by Goa police immediately after they landed in the national capital.

Later in the evening, they were produced before the Patiala House Court, which granted a two-day transit remand to the Goa police, allowing the accused to be taken to the coastal state to face further legal proceedings in the case.

During the court proceedings, the Luthra brothers were seen breaking down and embracing their family members.

The co-owners of the Goa nightclub, Birch by Romeo Lane, were brought back in an IndiGo flight.

Last week, the brothers, who face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, were picked up in Phuket following an Interpol Blue Corner Notice issued at the request of the Indian government.

According to Goa police, the brothers had booked their tickets within 90 minutes of the fire that broke out in the early hours of December 7. They caught an IndiGo flight for Phuket from New Delhi at 5.30am.

Last week, a Delhi court had dismissed their plea for anticipatory bail. They had sought four weeks’ anticipatory bail from the court through their lawyers, claiming they had left India on a business trip and denying they had tried to evade the investigation.

Sources said the brothers were allegedly attending a wedding in Delhi at the time of the incident. As soon as they got information about the fire and the potential scale of damage, they called their office in Delhi’s Model Town and asked their staff to book flight tickets. They then rushed to their home, picked up their belongings and fled.

The Goa police have alleged that the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub lacked not just fire safeguards but even a no-objection certificate from the fire department, a liquor permission from the excise department, and a building clearance. However, government officials had allegedly stalled the local panchayat’s demolition order against the structure.