Maha CM assures Nevali villagers of withdrawal of cases:

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today assured a delegation of villagers from Nevali in Thane's Ambernath area that cases against them, for obstructing the Navy from possessing a plot of land there last year, would be withdrawn.

The information was given in an official release by Thane Guardian Minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde who accompanied the delegation that met Fadnavis in Nagpur today.

Several villagers were arrested on June 22, 2017 after they stopped the Navy from taking possession of a 1,670 acre plot of land in Nevali that the Defence Ministry claims as its own.

Agitating villagers, part of the Nevali Zameen Bachao Samiti, however, claim that the land was taken over by the British during World War II and was not returned to its original land-owners after the war ended.

Since Independence, the Defence Ministry claims the land as its own.