We publish hereunder an Extract from the article “Punjab-The Way Out” by Shri Ram Jethmalani, a Supreme Court Lawyer of repute Published in Surya India of March 1986, The attitude of the Union Government towards the so-called terrorists is marked by hysteria and paranoi fear, Having imprisoned himself in security prison, the Prime Minister cannot but feel that others should be imprisoned, too. I could cite numerous illustrations but only one will do. This is the case of Simranjit Singh Mann who had a distinguished record of service in the Indian police Force which he served with distinction from 1967. In 1981 he was an Assistant Inspector General of Police when he was asked to take over as the Group ‘Commandant of the Central Industrial Security Force in Bombay. “He was shocked by the manner in which the clouds of tragedy were gathering in Punjab. Deeply disturbed by “Operation Blue Star”, he promptly resigned, wanting to serve those rendered destitute by the tragic happenings in and outside Punjab, He was firmly against terrorism and violence; he said so to the “Celebrity” magazine during the course of an interview which was published in September 1984. He claims that news reached him of a plan to liquidate him. He ‘went underground and was walking out of India into Nepal when he was arrested on the night of November 29, 1984.
At the time of his resignation and shortly before, he wrote letters to President Zail Singh and the Chief Secretary, of Punjab giving ‘vent t6 hi feelings of anguish and emotional disturbance, He was charged with waging war. If war could be waged by writing letters we would all become war heroes. Detention under the National Security was clamped down on him. For more than a year in searing heat and biting cold he was forced to sleep on a cement block with no quilt or a mosquito net, until the Punjab High Court declared his detention invalid.
“Instead of being released and allowed to join his family with a renewed faith in the Indian rule of Jaw, he was again arrested, removed by helicopter to Delhi and from Delhi by plane to Bombay. The police thought that the conditions in Bombay were so unstable and war like that they dared not take him to court,, Instead they took the court into the lockup and the court solemnly proceeded to remand him for a fortnight of police custody in the absence of his lawyers, friends or relatives. The entire police station was it up, according to Mann to prevent him from sleeping and according to the police, for security reasons. Hordes of policemen and officers armed with stain-guns guarded him in the police station. The police claim that they were so afraid of this man without arms and enfeebled by a long term in jail that they had to employ 12 sub-inspectors and more than 50 constables to take care of him.
“Mann claims that this was the revival of the plan to liquidate him. The police claim that they were afraid that he would be liquidated by others; they were only trying to save him, confessing that even police custody can be terribly unsafe. Not being able to make out a case against him in Bombay, within eight days they whisked him away to Bahrain a Border Security Force plane and from there to the Bhagalpur jail of the ‘blinding of the prisoners’ fame, He was lodged there in lunatic ward until a legal threat to Minister of internal Security brought some relief. The man still languishes in jail.
Before I took his case Thad met him in jail and requested him to answer five questions in writing, which he did. Here are the questions and his answers:
- Do you want the democratic and electoral process to be reestablished in Punjab?
- Yes. I have always been a bureaucrat, I want peace.
- Do you recognize that this is not possible unless peace is completely established and terrorism ended?
- I have always stood for peace and written strongly against terrorism in my communications to the Government.
- On release will you do everything you can to stop violence and establish Hindu-Sikh amity?
- want complete amnesty for all so that it strengthens the amity and diminishes hatred,
- Have you done anything to foment public disorder? Have you ever preached violence, murder arson, etc.?
- Never.
- Can I extend these questions to the court of law and the detaining authority or its superior?
- With a clear conscience.
I communicated these views to the Government. This was before I took his case to the Punjab Court. Only a stupid government can keep such people in jail. I think the Government wants to breed terrorists and there can be no surer way of doing that.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 11, 1986
