Mumbai, 31 Oct

Mumbai on Thursday witnessed a tense situation where several children were held captive, perhaps for the first time, but the metropolis is no stranger to hostage crises, which in the past have pushed it to the edge and tested police efficiency in non-terror cases.

Police successfully concluded a nearly three-hour-long dramatic hostage situation, safely rescuing 17 children and two adults held at a studio in the Powai area by a person who died from a bullet injury sustained during police action.

The tense drama unfolded around 1.30 pm after the Powai police station received an alert that a person, identified as Rohit Arya, 50 had taken 17 children hostage inside RA Studio in the Mahavir Classic building.

The children, boys and girls between the ages of 10 to 12, had been called to the studio for an audition for a web series that had been ongoing for two days.

This may be the first of its kind situation in recent years in which a large number of children were held hostage, a police official said. In a video released before police intervention, hostage-taker Arya explained his motive, claiming he made a plan to hold the children instead of committing suicide.

"I have very simple demands. Very moral, ethical demands. I have some questions," Arya said, adding, "I want to speak to some people... I want these answers. I am not a terrorist, nor do I have any demand for money. (I) want to make simple conversations."

He issued a stern warning to authorities that "the slightest wrong move from your end may trigger me to set this whole place on fire....whether I die or not, the children will be unnecessarily hurt, traumatised for sure....I should not be held responsible."

Arya ended by saying that after the "conversations," he would leave the room and vaguely added that "a lot of people have these problems" and that he would offer a solution through talks, though he never specified what the problems were.

According to police, Arya was carrying an air gun and also some chemicals. Anxious parents waited outside the 10-storey building as the hostage drama unfolded. After receiving a call about a man holding children hostage inside R A Studio in Mahavir Classic building, Powai police officials along with a Quick Response Team (QRT), Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad and a fire brigade team reached the spot, said DCP Nalawade.

Before the police entered the studio, Arya released his video which went viral on social media.

From double-decker bus to a flat

In the last decade or so, the financial capital has witnessed multiple hostage-taking scenarios.

In March 2010, a retired customs officer, Harish Marolia, had taken a 14-year-old girl hostage in suburban Andheri (West). The 60-year-old had held the girl, Himani, captive in his flat. Marolia had taken the step after an altercation with members of the housing society where the two resided, the official recalled.

Minutes before taking the girl hostage, Marolia had objected to construction work on one of the floors in his building. He had also threatened the housing society’s secretary by firing in the air.

The hostage drama came to a violent end when Marolia killed the teenager and he himself was subsequently shot dead by police.

In November 2008, a 25-year-old gunman from Bihar, Rahul Raj, held commuters in a double-decker civic-run bus hostage during the vehicle’s journey from Andheri. As the bus reached Bail Bazar in Kurla, nearly 100 policemen surrounded the bus.

When police asked Raj to surrender, he threw a currency note at them on which he had written that he had come to “kill” Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray, whose party had launched an anti-migrant agitation in Mumbai targeting North Indians.

Police shot dead the 25-year-old, bringing a bloody end to the crisis.

“In hostage situations, the most important thing is to save the life and ensure minimum damage. Negotiations are done keeping these two objectives in mind,” Shailni Sharma, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Nagpur, explained while talking to PTI over the phone.

Sharma was the first woman officer of the Mumbai police, who was sent for training to London for handling hostage situations after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

She was also called to train National Security Guard (NSG) commandos in 2022 in successfully handling hostage scenarios.

“When there is no headway in negotiations (with the hostage-taker), the operation team takes decisions as per the need of the time," Sharma said.

In the 2010 Andheri hostage incident, Sharma was called to negotiate with Marolia, but by then, a police team had barged inside the flat where he had taken the girl captive and opened fire at her.

In 2013 and 2017, the police officer saved two women, who were trying to end their lives, by talking and convincing them not to take the extreme step.

During anti-CAA and NRC protests in Mumbai, Sharma was posted as senior police inspector in Nagpada and handled the agitations through talks.