On his home turf, Shinde drops POTA charges against 29

‘‘I think it is a politically motivated decision,’’ said senior advocate Majeed Memon, who had represented an accused in the riots case. ‘‘Since Solapur is the constituency of Chief Minister Shinde, recommendations of the review committee were immediately accepted,’’ he alleged, adding that the government should drop all POTA cases instead of taking such decisions on a selective basis.

The decision to drop POTA charges is the second major announcement made by the home department after R.R. Patil took over from Chhagan Bhujbal in January. On Thursday, the department had withdrawn 868 cases filed against about 51,000 political and social activists since 1998. The activists were from various parties and included workers of the Republican Party of India who were booked for the violent agitations in Ghatkopar, following the desecration of a statue of Dr Ambedkar in 1998.