MUMBAI: The “script” for the shocking Powai hostage crisis was apparently planned for over a month. Seventeen children had their hands tied and mouths taped at a recording studio Thursday, as everyone believed a “hostage scene” for a web series was being filmed. Panic set in only when the captor, Rohit Aarrya, pulled out a gun and an iron rod and threatened to kill them, according to chilling victim accounts.Police said Aarrya came prepared – rags sprayed with chemicals were placed around the duplex studio and on the floor to start a fire if things went wrong, motion detectors were fixed at the main door, and moving cameras were set up on all floors.
A policeman said Aarrya had read out his web series script to 23 shortlisted children and their parents during the audition of 36 hopefuls, convincing them that a hostage scene would be filmed on the final day of a five-day shoot. “Only 17 of the 23 children attended preparations at the studio for four days,” he said. These “preparations” lulled the eight boys and nine girls, aged 10 to 15, who arrived at the studio at 8am on Thursday, into a false sense of safety.
‘Script Readied Over A Mth, Read Out To Parents’
A few hours later, some children sensed something was wrong and began screaming. That, said a cop, enraged Aarrya. “He began waving an airgun and an iron rod at us, shouting he would kill us all,” recalled one of the girls. “It was only then that we realised this was no longer fiction.”When police entered, they found the children with their mouths taped, and some with their hands tied. They had been denied food for hours as Aarrya kept shifting them from one room to another. “While negotiating over phone, we could hear children screaming. He watched us from behind closed sliding glass doors with dark curtains. At intervals, he would run back into the room and drag five children out,” said an officer. “This continued for almost two hours,” he added.At least 15 children were confined to a room on the upper floor. “The studio had two floors. There were two rooms, a narrow passage, and a small hall on the lower floor, while upper floor had two rooms, a hall, a passage, and a toilet,” the officer said. It is alleged Aarrya carried a petrol can to threaten the children. One girl’s 75-year-old grandmother was also trapped inside.Aarrya’s production assistant, Rohan Aher, was locked in a separate room and threatened at gunpoint. Aher told cops he had no idea of Aarrya’s plan. Aarrya was listed as the producer, scriptwriter, and planner of the series. “We didn’t know he had weapons or inflammable material,” Aher said, adding he managed to speak to police officers through a window while Aarrya was in another room talking to police and parents.Aarrya had also recorded a video stating he had abandoned thoughts of suicide and planned the “hostage” situation to get his “demands” met. Police said the video was sent via WhatsApp to two acquaintances from the auditions at 1.45pm Thursday, who alerted police. A team reached the site by 2.15pm, and after nearly two hours of negotiations, the operation ended with Aarrya’s death by 4pm.
