The Investigating Officers said Mehdi Masroor Biswas, an IS handler of the virtual world, was a hard nut to crack and was deep in both the virtual and the real world.
An officer who is involved in the investigation of Biswas, a cyber terrorist, told The Pioneer on the condition of anonymity that his involvement was much more than just tweets. Meanwhile, a story is circulating that Biswas has told a lawyer on the court premises where he appeared before a judge, who extended his police custody for another 15 days, that he was a soldier and a messenger. Biswas said, “I am a soldier and messenger. I don’t regret what I have done.”
Biswas’s tweets, under the name ShamiWitness, were seen two million times in a month, making his perhaps the most influential IS Twitter account, with over 17,700 followers. According to British TV Channel 4, which exposed Biswas through his twitter account ShamiWitness, two thirds of all foreign fighters on Twitter followed him.
He was in constant touch with British jehadis. Biswas was a constant source of inspiration for the jehadis and if they died he praised them as martyrs. He was arrested after an expose by Channel 4. A police report submitted to the court for his extension of custody reveals his direct involvement in the real world too. The report says they suspect that Biswas was in touch through direct messages (DM) on Twitter with IS fighters on the frontline, and may even know the whereabouts of three men from Thane, Maharashtra, who are allegedly fighting with the IS.
In view of this, the court has allowed the police to take him to Mumbai and other places in the country to investigate the leads. This followed a four-page report submitted to the court by the Investigating Officer (IO), Assistant Commissioner of Police MK Thammaiah. A police source said that Aarif Majid, who was brought back from Iraq and is in National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) custody, is said to have followed @ShamiWitness through another anonymous account @AbuAliAlHindi. Three others — Fahad Tanvir Sheikh, Aman Naim Tandel and Shaheen Farooqi Tanki — all from Thane, are suspected to be at the frontline. In fact, the NIA officer probing the Indian IS fighters’ case had also interrogated Mehdi.
Police claim they have accessed 14,000-plus direct messages through which Mehdi was in direct touch with suspected IS ideologues and fighters. Police have also submitted a collection of these direct messages to the court as an annexure, which the report terms “incriminating”. Meanwhile, the Bengaluru Police will have an exclusive cell to monitor social media activity with sophisticated tools. According to MN Reddi, city police commissioner, the cell would read the pulse of the social media. He said, “The ideal is to have a cell to feel the pulse of the social media in Bengaluru. The officers must be aware of what’s happening in the virtual world and to monitor the bad elements.”
In a related development, the parents of Biswas who are here told the media that Biswas was innocent and would come clean. Mikheal Biswas, father of Mehdi said law of the land will follow its course and expressed confident his son will walk free.