Mumbai Hostage Drama: Rohit Arya Who Kidnapped 20 Children Dead After Being Shot During Rescue Operation

Rohit Arya, a man who had allegedly taken 20 children hostage in the Powai locality located in Mumbai on Thursday, was killed after being shot in the process of exchanging fire with the police. 

The police claimed that Arya cocked an air gun at the police in one of their rescue operations, and the police fired one round back. 

Police Kill Rohit Arya During Rescue

The location was a small film studio known as RA Studios where Arya had invited a group of children under the pretext of an audition. The police hint that the children aged between 8 and 14 years were held on a hostage situation of approximately two hours before being rescued safe and sound.

According to the police, a team of Powai Police Station was on a distress call that reached the scene quickly around 1:45 pm. The process of negotiation was launched at once, yet he was not ready to give the children out. The police force made an intrusion via the bathroom when he threatened to kill them, and they were able to save the lives of all the 17 children.

Arya had already recorded a video in which he stated he had preferred hostage-taking to suicide, owing to the events before the incident.

“I am Rohit Arya. I have a plan and am holding some children here as hostage instead of killing myself, and this is my plan because I have a few demands as I call them simple demands, moral demands, ethical demands, and a handful of questions. He threatened to ignite the place, told him that the slightest misstep of his would cause him to explode, and said that he did not need money and was not a terrorist.

I want straightforward talks and that is why I have held these children ransom. I have kept them ransom in a scheme. When I live I will do it, when I die it will be someone else, but it will surely happen since the slightest mishap on your part will cause me to put this entire place on fire and perish there. Arya says in the video.

Rohit Arya’s Hostage Plan Linked to ₹2 Crore Payment Dispute

The scene has since been recovered by the police with the air gun and some chemical containers, which were also used by the investigators to detect that he was threatening the officers. The audition of a web series of the children took place in RA Studios, which is on the ground floor of a house in Powai.

He had earlier claimed that the department was indebted to him on a sanitation campaign known as the PLC Sanitation Monitor Project, which was initiated in the My School, Beautiful School campaign by the Chief Minister. The project, which is a part of his Let Change campaign which started in 2013, was purported by Arya to transform schoolchildren into the ambassadors of cleanliness.

According to his allegations, the department had approved a payment of Rs 2 crore of his work but had not been paying him since January 2024. Arya had twice staged hunger strikes that year and claimed that authorities were sidelining him in the programme even after being personally assured of inclusion in the programme by Deepak Kesarkar who was the Education Minister at the time.

Arya claimed that Kesarkar had given him two cheques of 7 and 8 lakh personal assistance and promised to give him more, which he had not done.

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