India, Nov. 1 -- A day after Pune resident Rohit Arya, 50, was felled by a police bullet amid a hostage situation in Powai, well-known psychiatrist Harish Shetty said "skilled interrogation", like trained negotiators do in airplane hijack situations around the world, could have perhaps saved his life.

"It made me very sad to know that he died," Shetty told Hindustan Times.

The psychiatrist was as perturbed 15 years ago, he said, when a former customs officer, Harish Marolia, was similarly neutralised by the police after he held a 14-year-old girl hostage in his Andheri (West) apartment.

In the incident from March 2010, Marolia killed the girl before he was shot dead by the police, whereas in this case, Arya was carrying an airgun and a...