17 children rescued after taken hostage in Mumbai’s Powai
Atleast 17 children have been rescued after a man held several children hostage inside a studio in Mumbai’s Powai area
Powai: Atleast 17 children have been rescued after a man held several children hostage inside a studio in Mumbai’s Powai area today. The suspect, identified as Rohit Arya in a video message released before the incident, was arrested at the scene.
The incident took place at RA Studio. According to preliminary information, the man who took the children hostage has been identified as Rohit Arya, an employee at the studio who also runs a YouTube channel.
The incident has caused panic in the locality and Parents and relatives of the children gathered outside the studio.
In the video, the man said he had chosen hostage-taking instead of suicide in order to 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, listing what he described as “simple demands, moral demands, ethical demands, and a few questions.” He warned that “the slightest wrong move from you will trigger me” and threatened to set the place on fire, adding that he did not seek money and was “not a terrorist”.
“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.
Mumbai Police have safely rescued all the children and arrested Rohit Arya. A large number of police officers has been deployed in the area.
