MUMBAI, Oct. 31 -- 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 Rs.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 d...