The Luthra brothers, Gaurav and Saurabh, who fled to Thailand while their Goa nightclub 'Birch by Romeo Lane' burned down last week killing at least 25 people, were on Thursday detained from Phuket, Thailand.
The brothers have been brought to the Phuket airport and will be deported to India, as per sources cited by CNN-News18.
What is the case?
The Luthra brothers fled India soon after a fire broke out at their nightclub in Goa, anticipating arrest as the probe brought them into the limelight.
The fire broke out past midnight when a musical night was being held at the nightclub. About 100 people, mostly tourists, were partying at that time. The use of electric firecrackers was believed to have caused the fire. at least 25 people were killed and six others were injured on late on December 6.
The Delhi-based restaurateurs fled the country and approached a court in Delhi through their lawyer seeking 4-week anticipatory bail, arguing that they couldn't be held responsible for the fire since they were not present at the nightclub during the incident.
With the court refusing to stay their arrest, Goa Police sought the Indian government's help to bring them back to face the law. The government used the passport route to trap the brothers. Under Section 10A of the Passport Act, the MEA suspended their passports, landing them in an immigration soup.
Meanwhile, separate blue corner notices were issued by Interpol on Tuesday, identifying the Luthra brothers as suspects in a case of alleged violations of the rules required to operate the nightclub.
Thailand immigration authorities detained the brothers from their hotel room. Indian authorities are expected to bring the Luthras back to the country within 24 hours to face the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and negligence.
Will Luthra brothers be deported or extradited?
The main charge that Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra face, at this time, is culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which carries a minimum sentence of five years.
Under an extradition treaty, signed between India and Thailand in 2013, Bangkok is obliged to send the Luthra brothers back if the charges they face carry a minimum jail term of a year. But typically this involves a formal request and proving 'double criminality', i.e., present evidence to a Thai court that says the accused is guilty of a crime punishable by both Indian and Thai laws.
This procedure is time taking as has been proven during attempts to extradite other wanted individuals, like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya from the United Kingdom, Mehul Choksi from Belgium.
There is another route - deportation. And even though, in both deportation and extradition a state ejects a foreigner, it is not the same thing.
Under deportation, a host country can remove foreigners living illegally in its territories. Meanwhile, under extradition, for instance, in this case, India would have to prove to the Thai authorities that its nationals - the Luthra brothers - committed acts viewed as criminal by both governments. The difference is in the legal minutiae.
A country can deport a foreign national if they violate the laws of the host country. And in the Luthra brothers case, they have not violated the Thai laws by their own actions but the suspension of their passports means Saurabh and Gaurav Luthra are in Phuket without valid travel documents. This amounts to an offence under Thailand's immigration laws.
They can, therefore, be removed as 'undocumented foreigners', which will likely be a quicker route back to India to face trial.
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