‘Was hit with rod, abused’: Woman alleges assault, raises safety concern at Luthras’ Goa club

A woman has levelled serious allegations of alleged assault and unsafe conditions at Goa’s Birch by Romeo Lane, just days before a fire claimed 25 lives at the nightclub.

The woman, identified as Vaibhavi Chandel, a resident of Mumbai, told ANI that during a visit to Romeo Lane on November 1 with 12 cousins, she and her family were verbally abused and physically assaulted by the club’s manager and security staff.

According to Vaibhavi’s account, the club’s layout itself posed safety risks. She described the venue as “suffocating”, with just one entrance and one exit placed at a height, which makes it hard to get in and out.

“When we were leaving the club around 3 am, a heavy chair was in our way. My cousin shifted it aside with his foot… The manager came to us and said, ‘You are damaging the furniture; we should have thrown you out earlier. You don’t have the status to be here,” she said.

She added that the manager then grabbed her cousin’s collar and spoke to them rudely.

Vaibhavi said the situation escalated after the manager called in bouncers, who allegedly chased, hit and assaulted members of the group, including hitting her sister on the chest and pushing her down stairs.

She also claimed that the staff barricaded the exit gate, preventing them from leaving. When her brother removed it, a bouncer hit him with a rod.

The group eventually filed an FIR at Anjuna Police Station, but Vaibhavi claimed that names of the club owners, Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra, were removed because they were not present at the time of the incident.

Notably, Luthra brothers boarded a New Delhi-Phuket IndiGo flight barely hours after the fire. They have now been detained in Thailand and are expected to be deported soon.

A Goa court recently remanded co-owner Ajay Gupta to seven days’ police custody in connection with the fire investigation.

Gupta has claimed he was a silent partner unaware of safety lapses at the club.