- Simranjit Singh Mann has in the news as the so called chief conspirator of an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Indira Gandhi.
He is a man widely regarded as innocent. A recent article by columnist Talveen Singh in the Indian Express, New Delhi, describes her meeting with him. Excerpts from the article are reproduced for our readers perusal.
“Well last week I met the man whom I think will be Punjab’s Laldenga. His name is Simranjit Singh Mann and he is currently charged with conspiracy to kill Indira Gandhi. The evidence that the famous SIT (Special Investigating Team) has managed to produce against him after four years of hard work is that he had a meeting with Atinderpal Singh in Bombay at which the plot was hatched. Atinderpal had since retracted his statement on the grounds that it was made under police pressure.
“But the case must go on, Mann who has been in Bhagalpur jail for the past four years, has been brought to Tihar and confined in a room that he describes as “the black hole of Calcutta but he is surprisingly cheerful despite this, because four years of solitary confinement and several methods of torture (including being locked up for several days without any clothes or bedding in winter) have taught him to expect little from our Judicial system.
The trial is being held in what can only be described as a travesty of a courtroom. One enters through a collection of toilets into a room of wooden benches, dirty, curtain less windows and naked bulbs. At this time of year the heat inside is so intense that it is difficult to stand for any period of time without feeling faint. The four accused are herded into one corner and then surrounded by a wall of nervous policemen who get fidgety if anyone comes too close. Mann’s wife tried to snatch a few words with him and was shoved aside by a policewoman who appeared to feel that there was no difference between the accused and relatives of the accused.
“The puzzling aspect of all these endeavors is that surely if Mann was the dangerous subversive that the SIT claims he is then there should by now have been some solid evidence against him. Secondly, if he believed in violence why would he need to emphasis now that he has never believed in it? After all friendly overtures are being made even to people like Harmindar Singh Sandhu who were actually arrested waging war against the state from the Golden Temple.
“Mann was a DIG at the time of Operation Bluestar and resigned ‘on the grounds that his conscience did not permit him to continue working for a government that could do what had been done in the Golden Temple. After that he wrote off his letter to the President and took every opportunity to speak his mind on the subject as did many other people. According to his wife this resulted in various people telling them that he would be arrested at any time and so came the decision to disappear underground.
“With hindsight even his family is inclined to believe that perhaps this was a silly thing to have done because immediately afterwards the stories about him became wilder and wilder. Journalists were fed with tales of how he had given arms licenses to Bhindrawnale’s men though why they would need these when they preferred AK 47s anyway was never explained. In any case nobody bothered to mention that in the end the decision to give an arms license rests with the District Commissioner.
“These things however are now matter of the past. Mann’s importance today lies in the fact that he is virtually the only Sikh political leader behind whom most of Punjab’s political forces appear prepared to unite. A large section of the Akali Dal certainly those who matter have stood by him and the All India Sikh Students Federation has also made it clear that they see him as a credible leader as has the Damdami Taksal. If there is ever to be peace in Punjab. Mann will have to be considered as someone the government will need to talk to.”
“Of relatives there are many since it is virtually the only time that the four men can be seen without iron bars in between. On this particular day the wives and mothers and sisters came armed with plastic boxes and thermoses containing goodies that are not normally included in prison fare. They seated themselves on the wooden benches on one side of the courtroom, waiting for the proceedings to end so that they could get a few moments with the accused. On the other side sat Akali Dal MPs and other politicos who made it clear by their presence that this was a political trial. Outside were several more Sikhs including Bhindrawale’s brother Harchand Singh Rode, who chose to stay outside rather than remove their “Kcirpans.”
“Mann, a tall, thin man with a scholarly air and Bugs Bunny teeth seemed more than aware of the need to make maximum use of his first chance in four years to express himself in the full glare of publicity. He pulled off his shoes to show where his toenails had been ripped off from the electric shocks he had been given and said that the same shocks administered to his genitals had ruined his urinary tract. He complained that his requests for a proper dental checkup had been persistently ignored so that “I have been in constant pain for the past four years.”
“They tell me that I should have a dialogue but how can I talk to the people who have done all this to me, who continue to do these things, the Sikhs would spit on me if I were to talk under these conditions.
“But he is careful to make the point often that despite all this he has not become the terrorist that the government says he is. He speaks out vehemently against violence of any kind and his sister who has become his political proxy in his absence, says that he has often said that violence can never be the answer and that “he hates the thought of tears in the eyes of any mother.”
“The case against Mann has been a fairly puzzling one right from the start, Before his implication in the assassination conspiracy, the main charges against him were that he had spoken out openly against Operation Bluestar, in a letter to the President and in an interview to Celebrity Magazine and that he had then tried to disappear across the border into Nepal by bribing a border security guard. Once he was caught various methods were used to persuade him to confess to having been involved in the conspiracy to kill Indira Gandhi. According to his wife, Geera, “When they were torturing him they would say why don’t you admit it and we will organize a Presidential pardon at other times they would say admit it and you can become like Shaheed Bhagat Singh.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 30, 1989
