The trail of corruption that enabled the illegal operations of Birch nightclub – an illegality that burned 25 innocent people alive – began not inside the nightclub, not in the boardroom of its owners, but inside the quiet, bureaucratic corridors of the Village Panchayat Office of Arpora–Nagoa. This is where the first breach occurred. This is where a residential house was quietly transformed, on paper, into a commercial structure. This is where Goa’s first line of governance surrendered itself to money, influence, and deliberate neglect.
What unfolded in Arpora was not an accident. It was the inevitable outcome of a system where those tasked with preventing illegality instead become the facilitators of it. The documents reveal a pattern that is not administrative confusion—it is premeditated bureaucratic corruption.
The documents with GoaChronicle.com expose a deeply disturbing pattern. An Establishment Licence dated 16 December 2023 was granted to “Being G Hospitality Goa Arpora LLP” to run a Bar & Restaurant cum Nightclub – “Birch by Romeo Lane” – on a property that had no legal sanction for commercial activity. None. Zero. The only permissions this property ever received from the Panchayat were for basic house repairs. And yet, a nightclub – one of the most structurally demanding commercial establishments – was stamped and approved as if the Panchayat was licensing a tea stall: No zoning verification. No structural safety checks. No fire NOC. No occupancy clearance. No commercial compliance. Nothing.
And that “nothing” is exactly what killed 25 people.
Because a nightclub cannot be licensed blindly. A nightclub is a high-risk commercial establishment requiring a chain of mandatory verifications. But none were demanded. None were examined. None were enforced. The Panchayat simply stamped the document, enabling a full-scale illegal operation to masquerade as a licensed establishment.
The earlier NOCs tell an even more disturbing story. Three separate NOCs in 2022–23 granted to Surinder Kumar Khosla allow only painting, flooring, and roof repair. Each document repeats the same condition: existing plinth shall not be exceeded. Yet anyone with eyes could see that the plinth was exceeded, the building altered, and an entirely new commercial structure was taking shape. The speed and scale of the transformation alone should have triggered a stop-work notice. Instead, the Panchayat issued more NOCs.
The truth is what rose on the property was not a repaired house – it was a commercial entertainment venue with lighting rigs, alcohol storage, sound systems, air-conditioning units, altered roofing, extended floor space, and infrastructure capable of hosting hundreds of people. No one in the Panchayat noticed this transformation? No one in the Panchayat saw the trucks delivering materials? No one in the Panchayat saw the construction take shape?
Of course they saw it. They just chose to look away.
No Panchayat in Goa can accidentally approve a nightclub. Not when every nightclub requires a long, stringent chain of approvals – fire department NOC, commercial zoning clearance, structural safety certification, occupancy permit, waste management compliance, sound permissions, crowd-capacity authorisation. Birch had none of these. And yet the Panchayat approved it. That means one of two things: either the Panchayat deliberately avoided scrutiny, or the Panchayat was part of the deal.
Because corruption does not always appear as bribes exchanged in dark rooms. Sometimes it appears as signatures passed off as routine. Sometimes it appears as officials “forgetting” to inspect a site. Sometimes it appears as silence bought through convenience. And sometimes, as in Arpora, corruption appears as carefully crafted NOCs that quietly allow an illegal structure to evolve until it becomes unstoppable.
Then comes the water connection NOC dated 21 December 2022 – a bureaucratic blessing pretending the property was still a residence. Water connections are not issued in a vacuum. The Panchayat knows exactly what is happening at a site before issuing them. A structure undergoing major commercial conversion consumes water differently, uses plumbing differently, and demands supply differently. Yet again, the Panchayat acted as if everything was legal.
This is not negligence. This is institutional participation in illegality.
Brick by brick, approval by approval, the Panchayat created the conditions for a nightclub to rise where it legally never could. And because of this corruption – this silent, procedural, paper-based corruption—25 people died in a preventable inferno.
The truth is harsh:
The first deaths in the Arpora tragedy happened the moment the Panchayat signed those papers.
The fire came later.
This is the anatomy of white-collared terrorism. This is how illegality is born and nurtured in Goa – not in secrecy, but in broad daylight, behind official seals and signatures. The nightclub did not deceive the Panchayat. The Panchayat empowered the nightclub. The nightclub did not build itself illegally. The Panchayat paved the way for it. The nightclub did not fool the system. The system chose to be fooled.
And now, 25 families carry coffins because a handful of people sitting in government chairs treated their responsibilities like disposable ink.
Goa must confront this truth:
The battle against this corruption begins with the Panchayat desks where legality is bought, sold, diluted, and destroyed.
Unless the gateway of corruption is shut at the Panchayat level – unless officials who sign illegal documents are held criminally responsible – Goa will continue to bury its youth under the rubble of avoidable tragedies.
Arpora is not an isolated incident. Arpora is a warning. A warning written in fire and smoke. A warning that corruption is no longer a moral failure – it is a public safety threat. A warning that unless this nexus is dismantled, more Goans will die.
This time the price was 25 lives.
How many more before we tear out corruption by its roots?
