Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 12: A man, who claims to be the original owner of the land on which fire-ravaged ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’ stood in Goa, has alleged large scale corruption claiming that a portion of his property was converted from a salt pan to a settlement zone without his knowledge, to benefit the club.
Pradeep Ghadi Amonkar said he had signed a sale agreement with Surinder Kumar Khosla in 2004, but it was withdrawn within six months as he did not receive the payment. Khosla set up a nightclub on the land, and it was later taken over by Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, owners of Birch by Romeo Lane.
A blaze swept through the nightclub at Arpora village in North Goa around midnight on December 6, killing 25 persons, 20 of them nightclub staff members and five tourists. Mr Amonkar said he was fighting a court battle against Mr Khosla over the land. “For 21 years, I have been fighting in courts to get back my land in Arpora, which has been wrongfully occupied,” he claimed.
While the case was proceeding, Mr Amonkar said he has now learnt about a new development. “The government quietly changed the zoning of my land without informing me,” he said. Amid the ongoing litigation, he said no notice was served to him concerning the zone change.
The status of the place where the nightclub was built has been changed to a settlement zone, he claimed. “How can a salt pan be converted into a settlement zone,” he asked. Mr Amonkar said he discovered the “zone change” only on Thursday while preparing documents to move the High Court against the club in connection with the fire tragedy.
The state government, however, has refused to comment on the charge of zone change. A senior Goa Town and Country Planning official said since an inquiry into this matter was underway, it would not be appropriate for them to respond to Mr Amonkar’s allegations at this stage.
The allegations of corruption from within has piqued the ruling Goa BJP. The party has sought clarifications from two of its senior members, party MLA Michael Lobo and former Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar who have alleged large-scale corruption in the beach belt, claiming that it had resulted in illegalities in the tourism sector.
“I have heard the statement by both the leaders. I have sought clarification from them for making such statements,” BJP Goa president Damodar Naik told reporters in Panaji on Friday. He was addressing a press conference to announce an alliance between the BJP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) for the upcoming zilla panchayat election.
Mr Naik said the party would take action against both leaders after receiving their clarifications. “The party cannot be taken for granted. We are running a political organisation. Everyone has to be within the limit,” Mr Naik said. Responding to the allegation by AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal that the ruling BJP was involved in corruption, he said, “Let Mr Kejriwal tell us why he was thrown out of Delhi. He was claiming to give good governance.”
Meanwhile, the deportation of the nightclub owners Luthra brothers from Thailand to face charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder is likely to be delayed because the government’s move to suspend their Indian passports to ensure they do not escape from Thailand to a third country and, potentially, go into hiding underground – has now left them without valid travel documents and no way to legally leave that country.
Sources said the Thai authorities take a grim view of foreigners travelling without passports or those who overstay their visas, though there are extenuating circumstances in this instance. Sans passports, the brothers must now be issued an ‘outpass,’ an Emergency Travel Certificate by the Indian embassy in Bangkok, and that could take up to 36 hours.
The process of generating and validating an ‘outpass’ requires co-ordination between the External Affairs Ministry and the Thai government, extending to legal formalities that include establishing the individual’s identity and, in this case, the brothers’ fugitive status.
This means the Indian government cannot generate the temporary passport till its Thai counterpart completes the required paperwork. And, even after an ‘outpass’ is generated – one each for Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra – Thai immigration officials must complete a second round of paperwork, this time to transfer custody to the Goa Police team that will be sent to Bangkok. It is, therefore, unlikely they will land in India before Monday.
Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, who were in Delhi, fled to Phuket in southern Thailand on the morning of December 6 even as their nightclub in Goa was burning. They were spotted on arrival, a photograph of Gaurav Luthra clearing immigration soon went viral. The Indian government then reached out to its Thai counterpart – backed by a Blue Corner notice from Interpol – and began the process to bring the Luthra brothers back to face trial.
India and Thailand signed an extradition treaty in 2013, under the terms of which Bangkok is obliged to send the brothers back if they face a minimum one-year jail term, which they do; under Indian law culpable homicide not amounting to murder has a five-year minimum term.
Meanwhile, the investigation so far has uncovered a number of worrying details, including the widespread use of flammable material, the lack of fire exits, and the absence of fire extinguishers. Also, the club did not have a broad-enough entrance for fire-fighting vehicles to approach the main structure; firefighters said they had to park 400 metres away, which complicated rescue efforts and may have led to some of the deaths. Investigators also found the club did not have a fire safety clearance.