A combo image of the the kidnapper (left) and the studio wher it happened.
Credit: X
Mumbai: As the Powai hostage crisis drew to a close after the kidnapper Rohit Arya succumbed to gun shot wounds, the Mumbai Police and the Crime Branch-CID have launched massive investigations to know more about the life of the 50-year-old man and his digital footprints.
The issue can well take a major political turn.
Air-guns and chemicals were recovered from the scene which indicates to the fact that he seems to have been planning the fake audition sessions for a long time, kidnap the children and made demands.
It is also being checked as to when and where the video that he circulated was recorded.
As per the latest information, links have emerged in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur.
Arya wanted to speak to former School Education Minister and Shiv Sena leader Deepak Kesarkar.
Rohit Arya had also started the Swachata Monitor concept in Maharashtra in 2023 - and had alleged that he was not paid dues and credit for this concept was snatched from him. In the past, he had undertaken protests and hunger strikes as well.
On his part, Kesarkar said: “Rohit Arya was running a scheme called Swachha Monitor. He had participated in the government's campaign. In that regard, the department was saying that he had directly collected fees from some children. But Rohit Arya had said that he had not collected any such fee. He should have spoken to the department and resolved the issue. It is wrong to hold children hostage like this.”
According to Kesarkar, he had helped Arya as a gesture. “I personally helped them when I was the Education Minister. I have given them money by cheque myself. But all the formalities have to be completed for the government's payment. Therefore, I do not think their claim of Rs 2 crore is correct," Kesarkar said, adding that abducting people is not the correct way to put forth grievances.
Reacting to it, Congress Legislature Party leader Vijay Wadettiwar said: “Rohit Arya has alleged that despite completing projects for the school education department, payments worth Rs 2 crore remain outstanding. The government refuses to waive loans, so farmers are committing suicide; on the other hand, contractors' bills are delayed, leading contractors to give up their lives, and in Mumbai, this individual Rohit Arya held 17 children captive."
“How many such bills has the government delayed? How many more major incidents could arise from this? If innocent children's lives had been lost today due to the government's reckless financial mismanagement, whose responsibility would it be? Will the then-education minister Kesarkar take responsibility, or the Maha Yuti government?,” the former minister said.