Mumbai hostage crisis: Captor Rohit Aarrya kept moving kids from room to room; threatened them with petrol can | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: Children were found with their mouths taped and some with their hands tied at the time of rescue from the Powai recording studio on Thursday, a senior police officer said. They were also denied food for hours since Aarrya kept moving them from room to room. “While negotiating over the phone, we could hear the children in his custody screaming and crying out in fear. He was watching us from behind the closed sliding glasses that had dark curtains. In between, he would run back into the room and drag five children out,” said another officer. He reportedly brought out children in various batches. “This continued for almost two hours,” said the officer.At least 15 victims were confined to one room on the upper floor. “The studio consists of two floors—sort of a duplex flat. There are two rooms with a narrow passage and a small hall on below floor while on the upper floor there are two rooms, a small hall, a narrow passage and a toilet,” said the officer. It is alleged that Aarrya walked around with a petrol can to threaten children kept in one room. One of the girls’ 75-year-old grandmother was also trapped inside.Aarrya’s production assistant, Rohan Aher, was kept in one room and threatened at gunpoint, said police. Aher told police that was unaware of the real hostage plan. Aarrya was listed as the producer, scriptwriter and planner of the web series.Aher told the investigators that he communicated with some of the police officers through a window while Aarrya was in a different room talking with police and the children’s parents. “We didn’t know that he was carrying a weapon and inflammable materials till Thursday.”Aarrya had recorded a video in which he said he had abandoned thoughts of suicide and planned the hostage situation to have “demands” fulfilled. Police’s probe shows that the video was sent via WhatsApp to two acquaintances he had befriended during the auditions. Another Powai police officer said the two acquaintances received the video around 1.45pm on Thursday and informed police. A team reached the hostage site by 2.15pm. The entire rescue operation that began with negotiations culminated in Aarrya’s death by 4pm. Additional commissioner of police Paramjit Dahiya, DCP Datta Nalawade and senior inspector Jitendra Sonawane interacted with Aarrya throughout the ordeal.“Initially, Aarrya spoke with a Powai police senior inspector over the window and asked him to share his number. He then made a video call to the senior inspector for discussions. He wanted police to come to the spot and kept a watch on the movement through the moving cameras,” said an officer.Police also made Aarrya speak to some parents, including those of two kids who had a history of seizures and another who was ill, in the hopes that he would see reason and end the siege. “But that made no difference. He stayed adamant.”