Mumbai Police personnel. Representative image
PTI
Mumbai: In a tense and dramatic hostage crisis inside a studio, 19 persons including 17 children were rescued from a man who had taken them hostage in the Powai area of Mumbai on Thursday.
The man was identified as one Rohit Arya.
Not much details are available about the person, however, latest reports said that he was from Pune.
Arya had called the children to the RA Studio at the Mahaveer Classic building off the L&T Business Park-Gate No 5 on the pretext of auditioning for a web series.
“We have rescued 17 children, one senior citizen and another person,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Datta Nalawade said.
As soon as the Powai Police station got the information, a team rushed to the spot.
Simultaneously teams of Quick Reaction Team, Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad, Mumbai Fire Brigade and special units like Force One rushed to the spot.
The man has released a video threatening harm to the children. “I need to talk to some people…Instead of committing suicide, I have made a plan and have kept some kids hostage here. I don't have many demands. I have very simple demands….if I have a counter-question on their answer, then I have to ask a counter question. But I want this answer. I don't want anything else,” he was seen saying in a video.
“Slightest wrong move from your side will trigger problems…I am not alone,” he said.
Nalawade said that even while negotiation was underway a team gained access by forced entry through the bathroom and rescued the hostages.
The hostages were kept confined on the ground floor of the studio.
Police said that some chemicals and an air gun had been seized from the crime scene.