Inside Mumbai’s 3.5-hour hostage ordeal and the rescue of 17 kids from duct pipe
The children were called to the studio on pretext of an audition by a man named Rohit Arya who held them hostage as he raised his demands.
Seventeen children between the ages of 12 and 15, who were called to a studio in Mumbai's Powai on pretext of an audition, were held hostage for three-and-a-half hours Thursday afternoon by a man carrying an airgun and an inflammable spray.
The 50-year-old man, identified as Rohit Arya from Pune, was later shot dead in a massive joint operation launched by the Mumbai police and fire brigade.
As he held the children hostage, Arya released a video in an eerily calm tone where he said he had no intention to hurt the children but wanted to speak to certain people to help him recover ₹2 crore that the Maharashtra education department owed him. Arya reportedly used to make short films and had worked with Maharashtra government for a campaign.
How did the hostage situation unfold?
8 am | Accompanied by their parents, the children reportedly reached Arya's studio in Powai on Thursday morning which Arya had rented at Mahavir Classic, a commercial-cum-residential building four days ago. The parents waited outside as the kids went in for the audition. However, parents grew anxious as none of the kids stepped out even for lunch till 1 pm, nor could the parents access the theatre.
First distress call at 1:45 pm | In the meantime, people in the adjacent building saw some children crying and pleading for help from behind the closed glass windows of the theatre. They alerted the the local police at 1.45 pm, an earlier HT report mentioned. Arya, who had locked the children in along with two female and one young male assistant, allegedly put theft sensors on the doors of the theatre which would alert him to anyone trying to get in.
2 pm | Police reached the spot on Thursday afternoon and engaged Arya in negotiations while two teams climbed up the duct line of the building with the help from fire brigade. One team barged through the first floor bathroom to reach the hall where the children were held hostage. The other team cut the glass wall and entered the hall from the other side.
3 pm | Mumbai Fire Brigade Station officer Abhijit Sonawane told Hindustan Times that they received a call from the police about the development at around 3 pm.
Also read: ‘Unpaid’ dues, Swachhata Monitor project: Story behind Rohit Arya, the Mumbai hostage-taker
5.15 pm: After a tense standoff with the police, Rohit Arya was shot dead by Amol Waghmare of the anti-terrorist cell of the Powai police station after he entered the studio hall from the bathroom. He fired a round at Arya, hitting him in the chest and was taken to Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Hospital in Jogeshwari where he was declared dead.
What did Rohit Arya say in the video?
“Instead of dying by suicide, I have made some plans and have accordingly held the children hostage here. My demands are not many…my demands are simple and moral and ethical… I want answers from some people and answers to counter-questions that might crop up from their answers, but I want answers to my questions. I am not a terrorist and do not have any monetary demands and my demands are not immoral at all,” he said in the video statement.
“I want simple conversations for which I have taken these children hostage. I have done this in accordance with a plan,” he added and warned the police that “a slightest wrong move on their part will trigger me to kill the children.”
Who was Rohit Arya?
Arya used to make short video films and ran school cleanliness campaigns for Maharashtra government when Eknath Shinde was chief minister. Arya, who was married but had no children of his own, used to make short video films and ran school cleanliness campaigns for Maharashtra schools and worked with former education minister Deepak Kesarkar.
Kesarkar, a Shiv Sena lawmaker, who had asked Arya to carry out the cleanliness awareness programme on a pilot basis. Last year, Kesarkar had also personally given some money to Arya after he complained that the education department was not paying him his due.
The state education department said Arya never submitted any bills and would keep inflating his ask, as reported by HT earlier. A police officer also said that Arya had sat on protests twice outside Kesarkar’s official bungalow – in July and August 2024 and later in Azad Maidan in October 2024, claiming that the education department had used his short films and documentaries highlighting importance of cleanliness, but neither gave him credit nor paid him for the work.
Rohit Arya served as Project Director for Project Let’s Change – PLA Swachhta Monitor, which was adopted in 2022 by the state government’s Primary Education Department under the Majhi Shala, Sundar Shala initiative.
During one of his protests while he was still in Pune, Arya reportedly suffered an epileptic seizure and was taken to a hospital by passersby.
His wife, Anjali Arya, had then told the media that her husband had been struggling to get the sanctioned payment for his project, which had received approval from Kesarkar.
(With inputs from Vinay Dalvi and Yogesh Naik)
