Mumbai hostage scare: Maharashtra minister Dada Bhuse seeks report; probe ordered into Rohit Aarrya’s govt projects

MUMBAI: A day after the dramatic hostage crisis in Mumbai's Powai area ended with the death of Rohit Aarrya, Maharashtra school education minister Dada Bhuse said on Friday that he has sought a detailed report on the projects Aarrya’s company executed for the education department. Aarrya, 50, was shot dead by police on Thursday after allegedly holding 17 children and two adults hostage inside R A Studio in Powai. The children — aged between 10 and 12 — had been called for auditions for a web series that had been running for the past six days. Police rescued all the children safely after a three-hour standoff, during which Aarrya was fatally injured in the exchange of fire. According to officials, Aarrya had long claimed that his dues for a state education project were pending. He had even staged a protest in Pune last year, alleging that the Maharashtra school education department had failed to clear payments owed to him.Minister Dada Bhuse, who heads the department, confirmed that Aarrya’s firm, Apsara Entertainment Network, had been associated with the Swachhta Monitor initiative, part of Project Let’s Change. “He had collected money from schools to participate in the programme. The department appears to have taken action against him earlier. We have now sought a detailed report on the work done by him,” Bhuse told reporters.Former school education minister Deepak Kesarkar also said he had personally met Aarrya and offered him financial assistance after the latter complained of pending dues. However, Kesarkar alleged that Aarrya had also taken money directly from school students through a website, which the department had objected to.A government resolution (GR) dated January 25, 2024, identifies Aarrya as the director of Project Let’s Change, which ran the Swachhta Monitor campaign from July 20 to October 2, 2023. The initiative involved school students acting as “cleanliness monitors” to discourage public spitting and littering, with 64,000 schools and over 59 lakh students participating across Maharashtra.(With agency inputs)