Year-ender 2020: Biggest headlines from Mumbai

The COVID19 induced lockdown kept Mumbai the city that never sleeps behind closed doors but some major happenings made headlines this year As we wrap up the year heres a look at the biggest headlines from the cityAarey declared reserve forestThe Maharashtra government decided to reserve 600acres of flora and faunafilled Aarey land near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park SGNP to create a protected forest area Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the lush green forest in the middle of the concrete jungle will be the first of its kind in the worldThe Aarey colony protests began on October 5 2019 after the Bombay High Court allowed the state to cut nearly 2500 trees to build a car shed for the Mumbai Metro The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation MMRCL began to cut down trees in the area merely hours after the HC order a move that faced resistance from citizens and environmental activists The Mumbai police arrested close to 29 people on charges of allegedly obstructing and assaulting police personnelSushant Singh Rajputs deathOn June 14 Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging from the ceiling in his home in Bandra Mumbai The case which was initially registered as ldquoaccidental deathrdquo spiralled into murder abetment to suicide and money laundering Although Sushantrsquos postmortem report suggested no instances of foul play struggle or external injuries his father KK Singh filed a report against his partner Rhea Chakraborty and her family including brother Showik Chakraborty for abetment of suicideUddhav Thackeray took oath as member of Legislative CouncilMaharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray took oath as a member of the Legislative Council after he was elected unopposed to the legislature Thackeray was chosen as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in November 2019 but he was not a member of either Houses in the state legislatureThackerayrsquos election to the legislature came after weeks of uncertainty when he finally dialed up Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to conduct the MLC electionsThe state cabinet had initially recommended that Thackeray be nominated by the Governor to the Council from his quota Despite sending two recommendations Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari did not nominate Thackeray to the Upper House of the legislature and was criticised by the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi MVA governmentBMC partly demolishes Kangana Ranautrsquos officeThe Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC demolished portions of actor Kangana Ranautrsquos office at Pali Hill in Mumbai after giving a 24hour notice to remove allegedly unauthorised constructions Amid thick police security the civic staff came with hammers and bulldozers and demolished parts of the buildings The Bombay High Court later stayed the demolition on a petition filed by the actorrsquos lawyer Rizwan SiddiquiArnab Goswami arrested in abetment to suicide caseRepublic TV editorinchief Arnab Goswami was arrested on November 4 in connection with the abetment of suicide case of architect Anvay Naik and his mother Kumud Naik on May 5 2018 for alleged nonpayment of dues by Goswami He was sent to 14day judicial custody by a lower court later that day Goswami moved the Bombay High Court for interim bail The Bombay High Court rejected Goswamis plea and observed that the victims rights are as important as that of the accused Goswami finally moved the Supreme Court and was granted bail in the caseMumbairsquos first AC local trainThe first airconditioned local train started running on the main lines but the response to it which otherwise would have been impressive remained woefully poor on the first day Access was only for essential workers There were just 22 people who took the train the entire day The poor commuter count was also due to the fact that one needs a special pass just for the AC local as it has its own fare structureFirst COVID19 death in MumbaiA 64yearold COVID19 patient died at Mumbais Kasturba Hospital on March 17 This was the first coronavirusrelated death reported in Maharashtra With this the number of novel coronavirus related deaths in India rose to three Previously two COVID19 related deaths one each in Delhi and Karnataka were reported The 64yearold patient had reportedly travelled to Dubai and was tested positiveFire at City Centre MallA major fire broke out at the City Centre mall in Mumbai Central area on October 22 According to reports the fire started in a shop on the second floor of the mall Later the fire was declared Level 5 Around 3500 people residing in the adjacent 55floor building ndash Orchid Tower ndash were evacuated for safety Around 24 fire engines and 250 firemen were able to douse the fire after 56 hours Two firemen sustained injuries during the firefighting operation and were shifted to a hospital They were later treated and discharged