Suspects' social media activity shows misguided fixation with revolutionaries

Four men and a woman who were responsible for the gravest security breach in Parliament in two decades on Wednesday first met on a Facebook group dedicated to fans of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, and three of them conducted a recce of the Lok Sabha premises during the Monsoon session, investigators said.

- Somya Lakhani

Photos of Indian freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Chandrashekhar Azad; quotes by Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and American socialist and labour activist Albert Parsons; photos and videos from the farmers' protests; and visuals capturing the plight of MGNREGA workers - this is what three of the five people accused in the Parliament breach have posted on social media over the last two years.

On Wednesday, one of them, Lalit Jha, posted a video on Instagram of two people Neelam Singh (Neelam Azad on social media) and Amol Shinde - chanting "Jai Bhim", "Jai Bharat", and "Bharat Mata ki Jai", while releasing coloured gas from canisters outside Parliament. Here is a reconstruction of the activities of three of the five suspects from their social media profiles.

Neelam Singh