Bengaluru/Kolkata: In an arrest with international ramifications, Indian business executive Mehdi Masroor Biswas, whose Twitter handle @ShamiWitness was alleged to be the most prolific for terror group Islamic State (IS), was held from a Bengaluru suburb early yesterday. His family claimed he was not linked, but his account was “hacked”.
Biswas, 24, who hails from West Bengal, was arrested two days after Channel 4 News reported from London that he was part of the dreaded IS’ twitter activities and was regularly tweeting from Bengaluru.
He was picked from his one-room rented house in the northeast suburbs of the city and sent to police custody after preliminary interrogation, Karnataka Director General of Police Lal Rokhuma Pachau told reporters in Bengaluru. “Mehdi was found asleep in a one-room tenement when our probe team knocked on his door in the early hours. He was detained, interrogated and arrested on confessing that he was a radical Islamist,” Pachau said.
The police team seized incriminating documents, Islamic literature and many pictures from his room. Biswas’ twitter handle @ShamiWitness has over 17,000 followers, mostly from the West, and he used to aggressively tweet after collecting information on Middle Eastern developments.
“Mehdi’s tweets from his Twitter handle were most popular among British IS supporters,” Channel 4 News said in its report unmasking Biswas’ activity. The twitter handle has been de-activated a day after the news channel unmasked his identity.
Hailing from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, Biswas was employed in Indian multinational firm ITC and according to police, earned an annual package of Rs.5.38 lakh.
ITC vice president Nazeeb Arif, confirming Biswas was an employee, said the company had informed police “about his employment status” and “extended all cooperation to the investigation”. He also said Biswas didn’t have access to social media from office.
Biswas’ father, who was employed with the West Bengal electricity board, refused to believe that his son has any terror links and claimed his account was hacked. N Masroor Biswas, who stays in Koikhali in northeastern Kolkata, said that he had no knowledge about his son’s arrest as his phone was switched off.
“My son said he did not understand how it has happened. He said his internet account is hacked. I don’t believe that my son has any link with IS,” said the senior Biswas.IANS
