Days after Bengaluru-based engineer Mehdi Masroor Biswas confessed to running a pro-Islamic State twitter account, the city’s police has sent a notice to Twitter India executives to be a part of the investigation.
The notice was sent after police wanted more information on Biswas’ twitter handle – Shami Witness. The handle had more than 17,000 followers. A joint investigation by the state and central agencies has revealed that Biswas wanted to radicalise Muslims abroad and that most of his tweets were sermons translating Arabic literature.
The agencies have however ruled out his role in recruiting people or arranging any funds. Sources also tell that it is highly unlikely that he was in touch with any ISIS member even though he was highly motivated about the spreading the message of jihad.
The Bengaluru Police has got a five-day custody of Mehdi after he confessed to running a pro-ISIS twitter account. The 24-year-old was arrested from his home in Bengaluru on Saturday. Meanwhile, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) also questioned Mehdi’ parents in Kolkata on Sunday.
Bengaluru DCP Crime Abhishek Goyal, who was part of the crack team that arrested Masroor, said, “Our task has just begun. We have to look at how he got in touch with all the people who are followers, his contacts, and also we would like to see if there were any more no of people involved.”
Meanwhile, Goyal has started receiving threats. Within hours of Masroor’s arrest, threats started pouring in the form of tweets saying that revenge will be taken.
