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Journalism of Courage
Rohit Arya, who was gunned down by Mumbai Police in Powai on Thursday, ran a cafe in Pune that closed down a few months ago. Arya allegedly held 17 children and 1 person hostage in a studio in Powai when he was shot. He claimed that the state government did not pay dues for his work for the Swachhta Monitor Project under the ‘My School, Beautiful School’ campaign run by the School Education Department.
Arya ran a cafe called Jelly’s Cafe at a rented shop in Girija Shankar Vihar, Karve Nagar. According to neighbouring shopkeepers, Arya started the cafe around December and closed it down by June-July. The shop now houses a garage, but the underside of the plastic roof protruding from the garage still displays the previous cafe’s logo.
A shopkeeper from a neighbouring shop said, “I was not aware of the news. I am completely shocked. We had normal interactions of ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ when he used to enter and leave. Whenever he would go away for a few minutes, he used to ask us to look after his cafe. There was not much interaction with us other than that. The cafe had sandwiches and burgers and other such items. He also had a special jelly chocolate. However the cafe was not very successful and there was not much sales, and he shut it down in some 6 months.”
Another shopkeeper said, “Someone called me yesterday informing me that this had happened and then I checked the news. He had previously mentioned that he was going to some protest in Mumbai, but I did not know what it was about.”
Arya used to reside at a building near his cafe and shifted a year or two ago, according to residents. A resident told The Indian Express, “He was a normal person. Just like you and me are talking, he used to talk like that. I didn’t interact with him much. He used to live here with his family around 2 years ago.”
Another building resident said, “I had seen him in the building coming out or going a couple of times but never interacted with him. I watched the news last evening and I told my family that I had seen the man somewhere. Then my partner said that he used to stay in our building.”
A resident of the area from a nearby building told The Indian Express, “He was a calm and composed man. He used to interact normally with us. I never thought something like this would happen. I have doubts about the version that has come out in public. But surprisingly we never got to know about the protests he did over the years outside the minister’s house. His son was studying in college and was also a nice gentleman.”
Similarly, neighbours at a society in Shivtirth Nagar area of Kothrud, where Arya’s elderly parents live, were also shocked at hearing the news.
Arya’s demands
Arya had protested multiple times in the past year in Mumbai and Pune regarding his demands. He had been paid at least one cheque of Rs 8 lakh in October 2024 by former school education minister Deepak Kesarkar personally. The education department in clarification has said that Rs 9.9 lakh was paid to Arya’s firm for the project in 2022, but it could not be implemented in the next year due to improper proposals submitted by him.
Arya has also featured in posts on X (formerly Twitter) by Deepak Kesarkar and the Chief Minister’s Office. Tweets from August 2023 referred to Rohit Arya as the director of the ‘Lets Change’ initiative and featured Arya in a photo with then chief minister Eknath Shinde and Kesarkar.
