Zee Media Bureau
Bengaluru: Pro-Islamic State Twitter account holder Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who was arrested by the Karnataka police on Saturday, has confessed to handling the account @ShammiWitness from the last several years and is said to be close to English-speaking ISIS terrorists.
The startling revelation was made by the Bangalore police who arrested the 24-year-old MNC executive early morning and seized a mobile phone and laptop from his possession.
“He was careful in hiding his true identity and was confident that he will not get exposed,” Karnataka DGP L Pachau said while addressing a press conference.
“He became "a source of incitement and information" for the new ISIS recruits, Pachau added.
“He became "a source of incitement and information" for the new ISIS recruits, Pachau added.
The 24-year-old MNC employee worked as a manufacturing executive during the day for an annual package of Rs 5.3 lakh and for the terror outfit ISIS during the night, Pachau added.
Cases had been registered against Mehdi under various provisions of IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IT Act, Reddi said.
The police is now probing whether he had links with terrorists outside the virtual world as well.
Mehdi hails from West Bengal where his parents and sisters live.
He is the son of a retired West Bengal state electricity board employee and has been residing in a rented apartment since 2012.
The suspect developed keen interest in the affairs of ISIS and had been operating the Twitter account from the past several years.
However, the account came to the notice of authorities in India only after the report of Britain's Channel 4 News.
"His tweets, written under the name Shami Witness, were seen two million times each month, making him perhaps the most influential Islamic State Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers," the channel reported.
Mehdi was arrested by police and is being quizzed by the intelligence agencies about his involvement with the Islamist terror outfit.
The Twitter handle, which has been closed now, was being followed by foreign jihadis and helped in propagating the ISIS agenda.
Meddi's tweets were reposted and have reached across to millions of people.
Kalyan youth Areeb Majeed, who left his home earlier this year to join ISIS, was following the Twitter handle. He has confessed to being influenced by Mehdi's Twitter account.
Majeed was arrested shortly after his return to Mumbai.
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