Mumbai hostage accused Rohit Arya used motion sensors, CCTV cameras, electroshock weapon: Report

Rohit Arya

When filmmaker and entrepreneur Rohit Arya began his day in Mumbai’s Powai, it was supposed to be a routine audition for a web series. By afternoon, it had turned into a three-hour hostage crisis involving 19 people -- 17 of them children. When the standoff ended, Arya lay dead from a bullet wound to the chest.

Police said the 50-year-old had transformed his RA Studio into a heavily secured space, fitted with motion sensors, surveillance cameras, and reinforced locks, reported NDTV. The devices were configured to trigger alarms if anyone entered without permission. He had practically turned the studio into a fortress. Officers later found an airgun, an electroshock weapon, an expandable baton, and unidentified chemicals at the site, the report said.

According to police, Arya had called the children, aged between 10 and 12, for an audition that had been ongoing for six days. Around 1:45 pm on Thursday, the Mumbai Police control room received an emergency call -- a man had locked several children and two adults inside the studio. Negotiations failed, and Arya began livestreaming parts of his plan, claiming in a pre-recorded video that he had chosen to “hold hostages instead of dying by suicide.”

A team led by Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Amol Waghmare entered through a toilet adjoining the studio. The report said as Arya allegedly aimed his weapon, Waghmare fired, striking him in the right side of the chest. Arya collapsed instantly. All hostages were rescued unharmed. By evening, Waghmare was being hailed as the “Hero of Powai", reported NDTV.

Before the standoff, Arya had been vocal about a dispute with the Maharashtra Education Department, alleging that the government owed him Rs 2 crore for his work on a school cleanliness initiative called Project Let’s Change, under which students acted as Swachhta Monitors. In his final video message, Arya claimed his demands were “simple, moral, and ethical,” insisting that he had not been paid for his completed work.

Following the incident, School Education Minister Dada Bhuse said on Friday that he had sought a detailed report on Arya’s involvement with the department. “The department appears to have taken action against him. We have sought a detailed report from the department on the work done by him (Arya),” Bhuse told, according to PTI.

Bhuse confirmed that Arya’s company, Apsara Media Entertainment Network, had been associated with the Swachhta Monitor initiative, but noted that he had also collected money directly from schools to participate. “He had taken money from schools to be a part of it,” Bhuse said.

Former education minister Deepak Kesarkar also commented on Thursday that he had met Arya earlier and even offered financial assistance after Arya complained of non-payment. Kesarkar said Arya had been taking money from school students through a website, which the department had objected to.

According to a government resolution dated January 25, 2024, Arya served as the director of Project Let’s Change, which operated from July 20 to October 2, 2023. The initiative encouraged students to act as cleanliness monitors and discourage spitting and littering in public spaces. The programme reportedly covered 64,000 schools and over 59 lakh students.

The Education Department, in a statement released on Friday, confirmed that the initiative had first been approved on September 27, 2022, and implemented by Arya’s firm. The government later renewed its approval on June 30, 2023, and disbursed Rs 9.9 lakh for the project. For 2023–24, an additional Rs 2 crore was sanctioned under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Shala Sundar Shala scheme for a second phase.

However, the department said Arya’s submitted cost estimates for advertising, management, technical support, and film screening were “inflated and unverifiable.” The programme was not continued because its “effectiveness could not be gauged.”

In 2024–25, Arya once again proposed to revive the initiative, seeking Rs 2.41 crore, but while the proposal was still under review, he allegedly launched a website -- www.swachhtamonitor.in -- and began collecting registration fees from schools. Once this was discovered, the Education Commissioner directed that the funds be recovered and instructed Arya to submit an assurance letter confirming he would stop charging schools. He reportedly failed to do so, and no further action was taken.

Minister Bhuse later clarified that Arya’s activities had already drawn departmental action: “Certain procedures -- tenders, terms, and conditions -- are required for government projects. However, no such procedures appear to have been implemented in this case. The private media firm collected money from schools, which is not permissible as per government rules," it said as per NDTV.