The mood in the newly built victim assistance wing of the Goa Medical College and Hospital was grim on Monday (December 8, 2025), as relatives of those killed in Saturday (December 6) night’s fire at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub arrived to collect the bodies.

The place was swarming with police officers and doctors, and revenue officers were busy on endless calls, trying to trace families of the victims.

Vasant Dhabolkar, a young IAS officer and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, was seen using his own mobile phone to book flight tickets for families facing the grim task of ferrying the bodies of their loved ones home.

Twenty of the 25 victims of the tragedy were staffers at the nightclub. Among them was Jitendra Singh from Tehri Garhwal in Uttarakhand, an assistant cook at Birch. His

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