Mumbai Hostage Crisis: Man Dies After Taking 17 Children Captive in Powai Over Payment Dispute

Rohit Arya, the individual accused of holding 17 children hostage in Mumbai's Powai area, has died following injuries sustained during an exchange of gunfire with police.

Police reported that Arya fired at officers with an air gun during the rescue operation, prompting them to return fire. The bullet struck Arya in the right side of his chest, and he succumbed to his injuries during treatment. His post-mortem examination is currently being conducted at JJ hospital.

The tense standoff occurred inside a small film facility called RA Studios, where Arya had attracted the children under the pretense of an "audition." According to police, the children, ranging from 8 to 14 years of age, were held captive for approximately two hours before being safely rescued without harm.

Authorities stated that Powai Police Station personnel received an emergency call around 1:45 pm and quickly arrived at the location. Negotiations commenced immediately, but Arya refused to release the children. When he threatened to harm them, police forcibly entered through the bathroom and successfully secured all 17 children.

Prior to the incident, Arya had published a video declaring he had chosen hostage-taking "instead of dying by suicide."

"I am Rohit Arya. Instead of dying by suicide, I have made a plan and am holding some children hostage here," he stated in the video, outlining what he described as "simple demands, moral demands, ethical demands, and a few questions." He cautioned that "the slightest wrong move from you will trigger me" and threatened arson, while emphasizing he was not seeking money and was "not a terrorist."

"I want simple conversations, and that's why I've taken these children hostage. I've held them hostage as part of a plan. If I live, I'll do it; if I die, someone else will, but it will definitely happen because the slightest wrong move from you will trigger me to set this whole place on fire and die in it," Arya declared in his video.

Police have subsequently recovered the air gun and several chemical containers from the scene, which investigators believe were used to threaten officers. The children had been invited to RA Studios, located on the ground floor of a residential building in Powai, for what was described as a web series audition.

Arya had previously claimed that the department owed him payment for a sanitation initiative called the PLC Sanitation Monitor Project, launched under the Chief Minister's My School, Beautiful School campaign. He asserted that the project, part of his 'Let's Change' campaign initiated in 2013, aimed to make schoolchildren "ambassadors of cleanliness."

He alleged that the department had approved Rs 2 crore for his work but had not compensated him since January 2024. Arya had conducted two hunger strikes that year and accused officials of excluding him from the program despite personal assurances from then Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar.

According to Arya, Kesarkar had issued him two cheques of Rs 7 lakh and Rs 8 lakh as personal assistance, promising additional funds later—a promise Arya claimed remained unfulfilled.

Maharashtra Education Secretary Ranjit Singh Deol, however, clarified there was no agreement to pay Rohit Arya Rs 2 crore for the project. "He volunteered for the work and was awarded a certificate for his work. Subsequently, he was in discussions with the government to implement the 'My Shala, Sundar Shala' programme, but that failed to materialise. The Maharashtra government does not owe Rohit Arya any dues," Deol stated.