Mumbai Woman Files FIR Alleging Mistreatment by Staff at Luthras’ Goa Club

A Mumbai woman, Vaibhav Chandel, has alleged that she and her 12 family members were brutally assaulted by staff and bouncers of the now-demolished Romeo Lane beach shack in Vagator on the night of November 1, 2025. In a detailed complaint and subsequent media interviews, Chandel claimed the group was chased, beaten with rods, slapped and abused after a minor dispute over moving a chair while exiting the club around 3 a.m.

According to Chandel, the altercation began when her cousin gently pushed aside a heavy chair blocking the narrow, elevated single entry-exit point of the shack. The manager allegedly responded aggressively, saying, “You don’t have the status to be here,” grabbed her cousin by the collar, and summoned bouncers. The staff then allegedly blocked the exit with barricades, chased the group, and attacked them in clusters. Chandel said her sister was pushed downstairs after being hit on the chest, her brother was beaten with a rod, and she herself was slapped and had her T-shirt pulled when she tried to intervene.

The family sustained injuries but could only lodge an FIR the next morning at Anjuna police station after considerable effort. A case was registered against manager Ajay Kavitkar, staffer Junaid Ali, and unidentified bouncers under sections for assault, criminal intimidation, and wrongful restraint. Chandel claimed she had initially named owners Gaurav and Saurabh Luthra in the complaint, but their names were later removed by police on the grounds that the brothers were not physically present.

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The incident has resurfaced amid intense scrutiny of the Luthra brothers after a devastating fire at their Delhi nightclub, ‘Birch By Romeo Lane’, on December 7 killed 25 people. The Vagator shack was bulldozed earlier this week on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s orders for being illegally built on government land. The brothers, facing culpable homicide charges in Delhi, fled to Phuket hours after the fire tragedy.

Women’s safety activists and regular Goa tourists have called the Vagator assault “yet another red flag” about unchecked aggression at nightlife venues owned by the Luthra group. Police have assured action in the November 1 case and stated that the investigation is ongoing.

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