Man who held 20 kids hostage in Mumbai's Powai dies after police fires at him

Rohit Arya

Rohit Arya, the man who had held 20 children hostage in Mumbai's Powai earlier on Thursday, died of a bullet injury after he was fired at by the Mumbai Police.

Arya had released a video before his arrest, saying that he had chosen the option of keeping children hostage over killing himself so that he could force conversations with unspecified people.

"I am Rohit Arya. Instead of dying by suicide, I have made a plan and am holding some children hostage here," he said, adding that he had "simple demands, moral demands, ethical demands, and a few questions."

Arya had also issued a warning saying that "the slightest wrong move from you will trigger me". He further threatened that he would set the place on fire and specified that he was not a terrorist and did not want money.

"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 said in the video.

“A man, identified as Rohit Arya, had held a few children hostage in the Powai area of Mumbai. He released a video purportedly saying that he wants to speak with a few people and that if he is not allowed to do so he will set everything on fire and harm himself and the children. The man seems to be mentally unstable and police are trying to handle the matter, ” Mumbai Police said in a statement earlier today.

Arya had allegedly set up a fake web series audition in Mumbai’s Powai area and had invited around 100 students to participate. After the audition, he allowed 83 students to leave but held 17 others hostage along with two individuals. The hostages were confined to the ground and first floors of a studio in Powai.