Mumbai Aarey protests: Petitioners sent to judicial custody till Monday, 38 arrested so far

Mumbai, Oct 05: Even as the protests against the felling of trees in Aarey is raging, the Bombay High Court has refused to entertain any petition on the matter and asked the petitioners to approach Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. Till now, 38 people have been arrested and 55 people have been detained by the police.

A number of activists continued to protest during the wee hours of Saturday as authorities began cutting down trees at Mumbai's Aarey Colony for a metro car shed, hours after the Bombay High Court dismissed all petitions against the move. 29 protesters were arrested for opposing Arey tree cutting.

Of over 2,600 trees which are to be felled, 800 had been cut till now, activists alleged.

The bail application of 29 protesters arrested for opposing Arey tree cutting has been rejected. All of them have been sent to judicial custody till the next date of hearing on Monday

As per latest reports, Bombay High Court has refused to entertain urgent mentioning by Aarey activists to stay the ongoing tree cutting. Justice SC Dharmadhikar has refused urgent mentioning in the case and asked the petitioners to approach Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.

Section 144 imposed

Around 200 people were detained as activists and locals gathered in large numbers to stop the cutting down of trees. Meanwhile, prohibitory orders under Section 144 clamped in the area near the metro-rail project site in Aarey Forest, Mumbai Police PRO tweeted.

Shiv Sena's Priyanka Chaturvedi detained

Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi has been detained by the Mumbai police. Chaturvedi took to Twitter to say that she did not know why she was being "forcibly evicted" as she did not do anything to break the law.

40 protesters booked under IPC: Mumbai Police

Mumbai police have booked 40 protesters under various sections of the IPC since late Friday night. An official told PTI that over 60 people protesting against the felling of trees have been detained.

"Trees are being illegally cut at Aarey on Metro Depot plot. No tree can be cut for 15 days from permission. Permission has been uploaded on 04.10.19 at 4pm on MCGM website. Kindly stop this illegal act & book the illegal tree cutters." tweeted Zoru Bhathena, one of the petitioners in the Aarey matter.

Managing Director of Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited Ashwini Bhide, however, termed it as a false propoganda.

"A new false propaganda is in the air that 15 days notice is required after tree authority order getting uploaded on website. This is absolutely baseless. Tree Authority order is issued on 13th Sept 19. 15 days r over on 28th Sept. Action awaited till Hon HC verdict was out (sic)," he tweeted responding to the allegations.

Activists, however, claimed that the date of uploading the letter on the website would be taken into consideration and not the date of issuing the letter.

As hundreds of people gathered there late Friday night to stop trees from being hacked at the site of the proposed car shed, a heavy police deployment has been put in place.

Several tweets slammed the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra as well as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation over the issue.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Preeti Menon Sharma said tree cutting was a violation of the poll code in force for the October 21 Assembly elections.

The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed all petitions against the proposed cutting down of over 2,500 trees in Aarey Colony of Mumbai to make way for a Metro car shed and refused to declare the colony as a forest.