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Mumbai, Oct 30 (IANS) The owner of a social media channel was shot dead by the Mumbai Police while he was plotting to take 20 children hostage at RA Studio in Mumbai’s Powai on Thursday. A police officer gave this information.
Rohit Arya died of excessive bleeding while being taken to hospital after police stormed the premises where he had held the children hostage for about 30 minutes under the guise of conducting an acting audition, police said.
Police said that after taking the students hostage, Arya circulated a video as part of a plan to force some people to talk to him, failing which he threatened to set fire to the studio building and the hostages.
Mumbai Police were alerted when some of the hostages attending acting classes on the first floor managed to wave to passersby asking for help.
The drama ended when senior police officers negotiated with Arya, whom they suspect to be mentally unstable, and stormed the premises and opened fire on him to disarm him, a police officer said.
Police said the weapon taken turned out to be an air gun.
“All the children have been rescued and the kidnapper is in police custody,” a senior police officer said.
The 30-minute hostage drama spread panic in the Powai area as police formed a security cordon around the studio and asked people to vacate the area.
Due to fear of terrorist attack, Quick Reaction Team (QRT) was also sent to the spot.
In a video message posted after allegedly taking the children hostage, Arya said, “I am not a terrorist…nor am I asking for money. I want to talk to some people.”
He also revealed that he was forced to commit suicide, but instead of taking his own life, he was trying to reach people he wanted to talk to through a “hostage scheme”.
The police said that the studio where the play was staged is popular for acting classes and around 100 children had come to audition in the morning, following which Arya plotted the “hostage episode”.
Sources said that Arya had been conducting auditions for the last four to five days. “Today, they let 80 auditionees leave the premises after their test, but asked around 20 children to stay back,” said a police officer.
–IANS
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