Late on Thursday evening, Maharashtra government’s school education department issued a statement regarding the controversy over unpaid dues to Rohit Arya, a filmmaker and activist who was shot dead by the Mumbai police after he held 17 teenagers hostage at an audition theatre in Powai.
In a video, released by Arya while the siege was on, he had claimed the government owed him ₹2 crore. But the school education department cited different figures altogether. In a media release, the department claimed that Arya charged registration fees from the various schools for participation in Swachhata Monitor 2024-25, a cleanliness drive in schools, and the budget submitted by him to the department was vague and without proper documentation.
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The department claimed that in August 2024, it had asked Arya to deposit the amount collected from schools and students in a government account and then submit a budget with all details and documents for further action. However, Arya did not do so and that’s where the matter rested.
According to the statement, Arya’s firm Apsara Media Entertainment Network’s Project Let’s Change, under the initiative of Swachhata Monitor, was approved for the first time through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) via a government letter dated September, 27, 2022. After that, for the second time, the said initiative was approved via a government letter dated June 30, 2023 and an amount of ₹9,90,000 was paid to his company.
“The third time, in the year 2023-24, under the Mukhyamantri Majhi Shala Sundar Shala campaign, a fund of ₹2 crore was approved by the government to implement the Swachhata Monitor Phase-2 campaign. But the budget submitted by Arya showed the numbers and costs of components like advertising, management costs, technical support, online links for showing the Let’s Change film, etc. without any supporting documents, and due to these technical gaps this scheme could not be implemented,” said the statement.
After that, Arya requested the department to re-implement the Swachhata Monitor 2024-25 initiative under Project Let’s Change in all schools in the state and to approve the expenditure of ₹2,41,81,000 to implement the initiative. While the said proposal was under consideration of the government, it came to the notice of the government that Apsara Media Entertainment Network was also charging a mutual registration fee for participation in Swachhata Monitor 2024-25 on its private website without the approval of the government.
“The commissioner (Education), Maharashtra, Pune informed him on August 23, 2024 that Apsara Media Entertainment Network should deposit the amount collected from the schools for participation in the Swachhata Monitor initiative into the government account. Along with that, Apsara Media Entertainment Network would submit a letter that it will not charge any fee from the schools for the Swachhata Monitor initiative. After the completion of these two conditions the proposal of Apsara Media Entertainment Network should be submitted to the government for implementing the Swachhata Monitor 2024-25 initiative. However, due to the requisite information not being received from Rohit Arya, further action could not be taken,” said the statement.
The Swachhata Monitor scheme was eventually discontinued after the Devendra Fadnavis-led government came to power following the 2024 assembly elections.
Earlier in the day, former state school education minister Deepak Kesarkar said he had given some money to Rohit Arya after he complained that the department had defaulted on a payment due to him.
Kesarkar said he convened a meeting with department officials after Arya raised the matter. “It was revealed that he hadn’t submitted the required documents. In government, no department can release funds without proper bills. He was demanding payment without documentation and refused to listen to officials. Finally, out of humanity, I paid him some amount from my personal account,” said the Shiv Sena leader, who was state education minister from 2022 to 2024.
Kesarkar claimed that Arya had also staged a protest outside his home demanding payment. “He should have sorted it out with the department instead of taking children hostage,” he said. Kesarkar, a Shiv Sena MLA from Sawantwadi, was not retained as a minister in the Fadnavis government.