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'Sensors, Airgun, Electroshock Weapon': How Mumbai Hostage-Taker Armed Himself To Fight Police Standoff
After a failed negotiation, police shot Arya when he threatened them with an airgun. All hostages were rescued.
The final moments of filmmaker Rohit Arya’s life unfolded inside a small, heavily fortified studio in Mumbai’s Powai area, a space he had transformed into what he believed was an impenetrable fortress. On Thursday, what began as a purported audition for a web series spiralled into a three-hour hostage crisis involving 19 people, including 17 children.
When the standoff ended, the 38-year-old filmmaker lay fatally wounded, shot in the chest by police after he allegedly threatened to attack officers with an airgun. Arya was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
A Studio Turned Into a Fortress
According to Mumbai Police, Arya had meticulously rigged his RA Studio with motion sensors, CCTV cameras, and security locks, reported NDTV. The devices were positioned from the staircase leading to the inner chamber, where he held his hostages. Each sensor was programmed to trigger alarms upon unauthorised entry, while multiple cameras, equipped to capture both audio and video, gave him a live feed of the studio’s interior and exterior.
Police said Arya was armed with an airgun, an electroshock weapon, and a self-defence baton that extended at the push of a button. He had also reinforced the main gate with a centre shutter lock to block any forced entry. Later, officers recovered unidentified chemical substances from the premises, which are being analysed.
A Desperate Act
At around 1:45 p.m., police received a distress call reporting that a man had lured children into his studio under the pretext of an audition and then locked them inside. Shortly after, Arya began livestreaming a pre-recorded video in which he declared he would “take hostages instead of dying by suicide.”
A team led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Amol Waghmare entered the building through a toilet adjacent to the studio. Negotiations had failed, and tensions were escalating. Witnesses said Arya appeared poised to fire his airgun when Waghmare took the decisive shot, striking him in the chest.
All 19 hostages, including two adults, were safely rescued. Police credited Waghmare’s split-second action with averting a potential tragedy. By Thursday evening, he was being hailed as the “Hero of Powai.”
A Broken Claim
Before the standoff, Arya posted a video claiming the Maharashtra government owed him ₹2 crore for his work on Project Let’s Change, an urban cleanliness initiative launched under his company, Apsara Media Entertainment Network. The project, active in 2022–23, involved over 5.9 million students appointed as “swachhata monitors” to promote hygiene in schools.
Arya alleged that despite fulfilling his duties, the government had withheld payment. “My demands are simple, moral, and ethical,” he said in the video.
However, the Maharashtra Education Department swiftly refuted his allegations, stating that Apsara Media had already been paid ₹9.9 lakh as per an order dated June 30, 2023. The department clarified that an additional ₹20.63 crore was sanctioned for the broader Mukhyamantri Majhi Shala Sundar Shala scheme, which included ₹2 crore for student monitors—but Arya’s documentation was incomplete and inflated.
Officials said his proposals exaggerated costs for manpower, advertising, and the screening of a documentary. They also discovered that Arya had collected registration fees directly from schools, a violation of government rules.
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