Mumbai: On Thursday afternoon, Mumbai was stunned by a chilling three-hour hostage crisis: 17 children, aged 10 to 15, were held captive by a man in an act he claimed was desperation over unpaid government dues. The captor, 50-year-old Rohit Arya from Pune, said he had resorted to drastic means after failing to get Rs 2 crore owed to him by the Maharashtra education department.
This is a blow-by-blow account of what happened — and what drove him to commit such a drastic act.
The Set Up: Auditions That Weren’t
Arya had rented a studio in Powai just four days earlier, claiming it would be used to conduct auditions for a web series. He lured children — both boys and girls between 10 and 15 years old — to the studio under that pretext. When noon passed and the children did not emerge for lunch, alarmed parents and neighbours raised suspicion. Some children were spotted crying behind glass windows.
By 1:30 pm, the Powai police received a distress call. Teams from the Quick Response Team, bomb squad, and fire brigade swiftly mobilized to the scene.
Negotiation, Video Statement & Escalation
As police surrounded the building, the negotiations began. Arya refused to surrender and threatened to set the place ablaze if forced entry was attempted.
Around 2:15 pm, Arya released a video stating he was not a terrorist and had “made some plans” because he could no longer rely on dying by suicide alone.
In the video, he claimed the government owed him Rs 2 crore for producing short films and projects related to the Majhi Shala, Sundar Shala programme under the state’s clean-school initiative. He alleged past efforts — protests, pleas to education officials — had failed to produce payment.
Meanwhile, police observed children crying and signalling from windows. Arya’s demands and threats intensified, as he refused appeals to release the children.
The Tactical Move & Rescue
By mid-afternoon, two police teams covertly advanced via duct lines and vents, aided by the fire brigade. One team cut through a glass wall while the other entered through a bathroom vent.
Around 4:30 pm, with no surrender forthcoming, police fired a single shot, which struck Arya in the chest.
The children were safely evacuated by 4:45 pm. Arya was rushed to Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Hospital, where he was declared dead.
All 17 children and two adults were unharmed; they were taken to Seven Hills Hospital for checks and later discharged.
A senior police officer called the operation “swift but delicate,” emphasizing that protecting the children was the absolute priority.
Behind the Act: What Allegedly Drove Him
This harrowing episode was less about ideology or terror, and more about frustration and perceived injustice. Arya claimed that despite repeated promises, the state government had failed to pay him for legitimate projects he undertook under educational and sanitation campaigns.
His tactics—luring children under false pretenses, holding them hostage—were extreme and dangerous, but in his video statement he framed it as a last resort:
“I am not a terrorist… I don’t have any immoral demands… I have made some plans and taken these children hostage so that I can get answers from some people.”
Arya’s past activism included protests outside the office of a former education minister and at Azad Maidan over unpaid dues; on one occasion he suffered an epileptic episode during a protest in Pune.
Story behind the ‘dues’
Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar said on Thursday that during his tenure as state education minister from 2022 to 2024 he had asked Rohit Arya to carry out a cleanliness awareness programme, Swachhata Monitor. He was apparently asked to carry it out on a pilot basis. The leader claimed he had personally given some money to Arya last year after he complained that the education department was withholding the money owed to him. The education department has declined such allegations.
