PUNE, June 15: Not all of them were activists nor were they supporting the satyagraha to protest against the contentious Enron project. Some were just back home in Veldoor, a village under acquisition for the United States-power giant in Guhagar taluka, to meet their families along with their children during summer holidays.

Imagine their surprise when they found police officials walking into their homes and picking them up in the wee hours of June 3, despite protests that they were not participating in the satyagraha. For the 39 people of Veldoor released from the Yerawada jail here today, the last fortnight was a horrifying experience, with many women claiming that all the 28 women were cooped together in a single cell.

Indira Pandurang Medhekar and Supriya Chandrakant Padyal, who were released today, had come home to visit their parents along with their children on May 25. They had planned to be back in Mumbai on June 8. But fate had something else in store for them.

Picked by the police on June 3, along with other villagers of Veldoor, both the sisters spent a week in police custody at Chiplun, besides spending another 15 days in judicial custody at Yerawada. Their fault, claimed Bhau Khare a local anti-Enron activist, was they were sisters of an Enron Sangharsh Samiti activist Vitthal Bhalekar.

CITU leader Ajit Abhyankar alleged that many of the women were arrested unceremoniously without being given an opportunity to speak. The activists alleged that the Enron management, the State government and the police were hand in glove in spreading a reign of terror in the region. According to Abhyankar, 30 women and nine men were taken into custody by the police. These also included four minor girls, he charged.

Khare, who related their nightmarish experiences during the last fortnight, stated that another guest to be arrested was Chandrakant Lavande of Jaigadh who neither favoured Enron nor was against it.

Fourteen-year-old Santosh Shivaji Jadhav from Khed block of Ratnagiri district was to be felicitated at the Hutatma Lakshman Kanhere Vidyalaya but found himself behind bars. Seventeen-year-old Vanita Manik Patekar, fifteen-year-old Rekha Kisan Padyal were also taken into custody. They alleged that the police officials had shown them as major by ``increasing'' their ages to avoid producing them before the juvenile court.

Kashinath B Padyal, a worker in the Enron Company was also allegedly picked up and Kisan Gangaji Padyal, working as watchman at Kalbadevi in Mumbai, found himself in the police custody first and later in the jail even as he was getting ready to leave for Mumbai. Hardly interested in the agitation against Enron, Kisan expressed the fear that he would lose his job if his employers came to know he had been in jail.

The villagers were to remain in judial custody till June 26. However, an activist - advocate Dhananjay Bhave managed to get them released on bail, a local anti-Enron activist Adinath Kalsunkar said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.