Simranjit Singh Mann

Who is Simranjit Singh Mann?

Simranjit Singh Mann is a politician from Punjab. He is president of a Sikh political party, Shiromani Akali Dal. Mann has been arrested or detained some 30 times but he has never been convicted.

In 1984, he resigned his post as Commandant of the Central Industrial Security Force in Bombay in protest of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and attack on the most sacred shrine Harmandir Sahib during Operation Blue Star which was carried out by the Indian army, and was detained. Mann was charged, among other things, with conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He was elected in absentia to India's Parliament by an overwhelming mandate in the State of Punjab, and unconditionally released "in the interests of the State", with all charges dropped, after five years in prison, in November 1989. He was denied an Indian passport on the grounds that he was "threat to the security and integrity of India". Mann was denied entry into the Indian Parliament when he insisted on carrying a kirpan, which is allowed under the Indian constitution, with him.

In May 1993, while campaigning in support of a candidate during the Jalandhar by-elections, a gunman attempted to assassinate Mann. No one was charged in the crime.