Image Source hindustantimes
Mumbai: What began as a regular Thursday afternoon in Powai turned into one of Mumbai’s most intense hostage crises in recent memory. A 50-year-old man, Rohit Arya from Pune, held 17 children and two adults captive inside a film studio for nearly three hours before being shot dead in a dramatic police rescue operation.
The incident unfolded around 1:30 p.m. when the Powai police received an alarming call that children were being held hostage at RA Studio, located in Mahavir Classic, a commercial-cum-residential complex. Within minutes, teams from the Quick Response Team (QRT), Bomb Squad, and Fire Brigade rushed to the spot.
The Setup and the Standoff
Arya had rented the studio only four days earlier, claiming he was holding auditions for a web series. On Thursday, he gathered boys and girls aged 10 to 15 inside the studio under the guise of acting tests. When the children didn’t come out by afternoon, anxious parents waiting outside raised the alarm. Residents from a nearby building soon saw terrified children crying for help through the studio’s glass windows.
Police quickly cordoned off the area as Arya, armed with an airgun and flammable spray, barricaded himself inside. Negotiators tried to talk him down, but Arya refused to surrender and repeatedly threatened to ignite the studio.
The Motive and the Message
During the standoff, Arya released a video statement, claiming he had taken the children hostage to demand ₹2 crore allegedly owed to him by the Maharashtra education department for work on government short films and cleanliness campaigns under the Majhi Shala, Sundar Shala initiative.
“I am not a terrorist,” he said calmly in the video. “I only want answers from the people who wronged me.”
Police later confirmed that Arya had previously protested outside former education minister Deepak Kesarkar’s residence and at Azad Maidan, demanding payment for his projects. He had also suffered health issues during one such demonstration in Pune last year.
Operation Rescue
By 3:15 p.m., as negotiations failed, two police teams made their move. With assistance from the fire brigade, one team climbed the building’s duct line to cut through the glass wall while another entered through a bathroom vent.
At *4:30 p.m., after Arya again refused to surrender, Amol Waghmare, an officer from Powai’s anti-terror cell, fired a single shot that hit him in the chest. The police then stormed the studio and rescued all *17 children and two adults safely. Arya was rushed to Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Hospital, where he was declared dead.
Aftermath and Relief
The rescued children were taken to Seven Hills Hospital for medical evaluation and later discharged. Senior officers hailed the operation as “swift, calculated, and life-saving.”
“It was a tense three-hour ordeal where every second mattered,” said one officer. “Our first and only priority was the safety of the children — and we ensured they all returned home unharmed.”
The police have launched a deeper investigation into Arya’s background and his financial disputes with the state education department. Authorities are also reviewing how he managed to rent the studio and lure minors without verification.
What remains is a city shaken but grateful — for the courage of its police force and the narrow escape of 17 innocent children from a tragedy that could have been far worse.
[Newsroom staff written original, where key claims or facts are used, I’ve referenced the original sources (like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, etc.) transparently.]
