Goa, Dec. 12 -- As a devastating fire tore through the Birch By Romeo Lane nightclub in Goa, killing 25 people, its co-owners Saurav and Gaurav Luthra were attending a wedding in Delhi. Instead of returning to the state after learning of the tragedy, the brothers quickly prepared to leave the country.

Court documents filed in Goa reveal that the duo booked flight tickets to Phuket at 1:17 am on December 7-barely an hour after the fire erupted-and left India by 5:20 am the same morning.

By Thursday, officials confirmed that the Luthra brothers had been detained in Thailand even as a Delhi court rejected their anticipatory transit bail pleas. The court observed that their conduct, combined with the seriousness of the charges, weighed heav...