All Aarey activists set free by Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: In yet another major decision, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced that all the cases filed against activists, who tried to stop the felling of trees in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony, will be withdrawn.

The move comes days after he stayed the work for Metro 3 car shed at Aarey Colony after taking over as the chief minister.

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), on October 4 and 5, had cut 2,141 trees to clear 33 hectares of Aarey land for the construction of car shed and depot.

The tree felling sparked protests and a standoff with Mumbai Police resulted in 29 people being arrested.

“The cases filed against the environmentalists will be withdrawn. But no metro work has been stalled,” said the chief minister.

Earlier in the day, NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad had demanded that cases filed against the Aarey protesters be withdrawn. “The cases registered by the earlier government should be withdrawn immediately by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government,” he had said.

“The government promptly withdrew the cases. I thank the government for this,” said Mr Awhad.

Police had booked at least 38 protesters under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty) and 143 (unlawful assembly). Of them, 29 protesters, including six women, were arrested when some of them allegedly tried to obstruct the police personnel at Aarey from discharging their duty and manhandling them. A sessions court had on October 6 granted conditional bail to 29 protesters.