5 facts about Rohit Arya, the man behind Mumbai hostage ordeal

Rohit Arya, armed with an airgun and an inflammable spray, took 17 children hostage at the theatre where they were reportedly called for an ‘audition’.

The Mumbai Police on Thursday shot dead Rohit Arya, the man responsible for taking 19 persons, including 17 children, hostage at a building in Powai.

Rohit Arya, 50, was a resident of Pune. (PTI)

Arya, armed with an airgun and an inflammable spray, took 17 children hostage at the theatre where they were reportedly called for an ‘audition’.

Alarm bells rang when, by 1pm, none of the kids came down for lunch, and neither could the parents access the theatre.

People in the neighbouring building also noticed children crying and pleading for help through the theatre's closed glass windows, prompting them to alert the local police at around 1.45pm, as reported by HT.

Graphics depicting the hostage crisis and the dramatic rescue op

The dramatic three-and-a-half-hour-long siege ended after a team of the Mumbai Police, with the help of the fire brigade, barged into the first-floor hall where the children were kept.

Amol Waghmare, an officer attached to the anti-terrorist cell of the Powai police station, who entered the studio hall from the bathroom, fired a round at the Arya, hitting him in the chest. He was pronounced dead at a hospital later.

Here's what we know about Rohit Arya:

• Rohit Arya, 50, was a resident of Pune. He used to make short video films and run school cleanliness campaigns for the Maharashtra government when Eknath Shinde was the chief minister. Arya, who was married but had no children, had recently moved into his sister’s apartment in Chembur.
• In a video that he recorded and shared on social media during the hostage situation, Arya claimed he had no desire to hurt the children and that he merely wanted to speak to certain people who would help him recover the ₹2 crore that the Maharashtra education department owed him. Education department staff, however, told HT that Arya never submitted any bills and would continue to inflate his request.

• A police officer told the media that on two previous occasions, Arya had sat on protests outside former education minister Deepak Kesarkar’s official bungalow – in July and August 2024 and later in Azad Maidan in October 2024 against the state education department.

• Rohit's wife, Anjali Arya, told the media that her husband had been struggling to get the sanctioned payment for his project, which had received approval from Kesarkar, as reported by HT.
• Kesarkar, however, claims that Arya was demanding payment without documentation and refused to listen to officials. "Finally, out of humanity, I paid him some amount from my personal account,” the Shiv Sena leader, who was state education minister from 2022 to 2024, has said.