Gaurav Luthra and Saurabh Luthra, the co-owners of the Goa nightclub where a fire killed 25 people earlier this month, landed in Delhi on Tuesday after being deported from Thailand, ANI reported.

A team from the Goa Police was present at the Indira Gandhi International Airport to arrest them, the news agency reported.

The fire had erupted around midnight on December 7 in a club named Birch by Romeo Lane, located near Baga beach, one of the most popular tourist spots in Goa. Twenty staff members and five tourists were killed.

A preliminary inquiry has said that “electric firecrackers” set off inside the premises triggered the fire.

The brothers were in the national capital when the blaze erupted.

The Goa Police alleged that they had fled the country for Thailand hours after the fire broke out. However, the lawyers for the brothers claimed before the Delhi court that they had not fled the country, but had gone to Thailand for business reasons.

On December 11, a Delhi court denied them transit anticipatory bail.

On the same day, the Thailand Police detained the brothers in Phuket after India cancelled their passports and submitted a dossier formally seeking their deportation, PTI reported.

They are expected to be produced before a Delhi court, where the Goa Police will seek transit remand to take them to Goa for further investigation, The Indian Express quoted unidentified officials as saying.

On December 7, the Goa Police registered a criminal case against the brothers alleging that they organised a fire show at the club without adequate safety precautions or fire-fighting equipment.

They face charges under sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita related to culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash or negligent acts endangering life and negligent conduct with fire, ANI reported.

Also read: The expensive fantasy of Goa displaces Goans and runs on cheap migrant labour