Panaji, February 26 The Goa police filed a chargesheet in court on Thursday against 13 individuals in connection with the fire at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub, which resulted in the deaths of 25 people and left several others injured in December last year, officials said.
The 13 accused include the owners of the nightclub, according to a police official.
The Anjuna police filed a 4,150-page chargesheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Mapusa, in connection with the case, in which statements of 305 witnesses have been recorded, he said.
The fire occurred at the nightclub located in Arpora, in North Goa, on December 6, 2025, wherein 25 people were killed and several others were injured.
The accused in the chargesheet include Ajay Gupta, Gaurav Luthra and his brother Saurabh Luthra, all partners of M/s Being GS Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP, which owned the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub. All three accused are currently in judicial custody, according to the police.
The chargesheet also names the nightclub's employees, Rajiv Modak (corporate, general manager), Vivek Singh (general manager) and Bijay Kumar Singh (operations manager), as accused. They are also in judicial custody.
The other accused named in the chargesheet are Roshan Redkar, then sarpanch of the Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, and Raghuvir Bagkar, then secretary of the panchayat, both currently in judicial custody, and Priyanshu Thakur (nightclub gate manager) and Rajveer Singhania (bar manager), who are out on bail.
The Anjuna police have also chargesheeted Mayur Kolwalkar and Mohammad Afif Abdulsab Bateri, officials of an event management company which had organised a show at the club on that evening.
Surinder Kumar Khosla, a British National, who is currently at large, has also been named as an accused in the chargesheet. A Blue Corner Notice has been issued against him, the police said.
The police had registered an FIR against the accused under sections 105 (culpable homicide), 125 (endangering human life) and 287 (negligent handling of fire and combustible material endangering human life) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Later, BNS sections 338 (forgery of valuable securities), 336 (forgery), 340 (using forged documents), 61 (criminal conspiracy), 238 (destruction of evidence), 241 (destruction of electronic records) and 3 (7) (committing offence with common intention) were added against the club owners.