premise: Bhagat Singh died.
hypothesis: Bhagat Singh ( [ pə̀ɡət̪ sɪ́ŋɡ ] -- 23 March 1931 ) was a charismatic Indian socialist revolutionary whose two acts of dramatic violence against the British in India and execution at age 23 made him a folk hero of the Indian independence movement . In December 1928 , Bhagat Singh and an associate , Shivaram Rajguru , fatally shot a 21-year-old British police officer , John Saunders , in Lahore , British India , mistaking Saunders , who was still on probation , for the British police superintendent , James Scott , whom they had intended to assassinate . They believed Scott was responsible for the death of popular Indian nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai , by having ordered a lathi charge in which Rai was injured , and , two weeks after which , died of a heart attack . Awaiting trial , Singh gained much public sympathy after he joined fellow defendant Jatin Das in a hunger strike , demanding better prison conditions for Indian prisoners , and ending in Das 's death from starvation in September 1929 . Bhagat Singh became a popular folk hero after his death .