• Home
  • About Us
  • Events
  • Submissions
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Nasheman Urdu ePaper

Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

  • News & Politics
    • India
    • Indian Muslims
    • Muslim World
  • Culture & Society
  • Opinion
  • In Focus
  • Human Rights
  • Photo Essays
  • Multimedia
    • Infographics
    • Podcasts
You are here: Home / Archives for Mehdi Masroor Biswas

37K-page charge sheet against pro-IS twitter account handler Mehdi Biswas

June 2, 2015 by Nasheman

shamiwitness

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru police has filed a charge sheet against Mehdi Masroor Biswas, 24, the suspected handler of pro-Islamic State Twitter account, @ShamiWitness.

The CCB’s investigation team filed the charge sheet before a special court here on Monday, more than five-and-a-half months after Biswas’s arrest. Police had arrested Biswas, who was then working as a manufacturing executive with ITC Foods, from his one-room rented flat near Jalahalli in Gangammanagudi police limits on December 13, 2014, after Britain’s Channel 4 broadcast an interview with him.

In the interview, Biswas is heard admitting to handling @ShamiWitness, an IS propagandist Twitter account, for the last few years. Biswas’s Twitter account had more than 17,000 followers at the time of his arrest.

“The charge sheet runs into 36,986 pages, including exhibits, and contains details of about 1.22 lakh tweets and 18,000 followers. We have charged him under various sections of appropriate Acts and are confident of proving the charges in the court of law,” Joint Commissioner of (Crime) M Chandrashekhar said.

The charges

The CCB claimed that Biswas was a “representative” of Islamic State (IS) chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and planned to “establish” the caliphate. He made a “mockery” of those opposed to Baghdadi and the IS. He described the militants killed in Jammu and Kashmir as “martyrs” and urged Indians to support the IS. In the interview to Channel 4, he even expressed a desire to join the IS. Tests have “proved” that the voice in the interview was Biswas’s. The CCB also collected evidence about his contacts with “terrorists who know the English language”.

Biswas created “fake” e-mail IDs between January 25, 2013, and December 11, 2014, used the available content on the Internet and generated 1,22,203 tweets, besides uploading 15, 446 pictures. He used the Twitter account as a platform to “expand the base of his operations and instil fear among non-Muslims”. He “shared” the details of bordering areas of the IS to help those willing to join the organisation.

Mehdi has been charged under IPC sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the government of India), 124 (a) (sedition) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), section 66 (f) (cyber terrorism) of IT Act, 2000, and sections 13(1)(b) (advocating, abetting, advising or inciting any unlawful activity), 18 (b) recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist activity and 39 (support given to a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2008.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore police, Bengaluru, ISIS, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Twitter

Mehdi Masroor Biswas sent to judicial custody

January 3, 2015 by Nasheman

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Bengaluru: A special court Friday sent ISIS Twitter handler Mehdi Masroor Biswas to 14 day judicial custody after his 15-day police custody expired, a top police official said.

“Our probe team has collected sufficient evidence from him (Mehdi) on his pro-ISIS propaganda for the banned terrorist outfit (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) during his police custody over the last two weeks,” city Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters here.

The 24-year-old executive in a private firm was arrested Dec 14 and a case was registered against him under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act for waging war against a friendly country.

“With the help of social media experts, we have so far analysed about 12,000 messages Mehdi tweeted/posted on his Facebook account, in which he encouraged youth to join ISIS though it is difficult to establish if recruitment took place,” Reddi said.

British News Channel 4 Dec 11 unmasked Mehdi as a radical supporter of ISIS through social media and Twitter handler @ShamiWitness where he was regularly tweeting from here on the group’s unlawful activities in Iraq and Syria.

“Investigation so far has revealed that Mehdi is a propagandist of ISIS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries and against whom the terror group is at war,” Reddi said.

Mehdi, who hails from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is employed in the foods division of the Kolkata-based ITC Ltd here.

“We know Mehdi was in touch with one combatant in Iraq and was of some help to him, informing him of movement of forces and availability of passages. He is a highly radicalised person and has deep knowledge of what he was doing,” Reddi said.

Mehdi confessed to the investigation team that he had been operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Levantine region comprising Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza Strip, Egypt and Libya.

He has about 17,000 Twitter followers and used to aggressively tweet by collecting information and watching developments in the desert region.

Mehdi’s Twitter handler was shut Dec 12 after the news channel revealed his identity and reported about the terror activities he was carrying in the virtual world beyond office hours.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore, Bengaluru, IS, ISIS, Islamic State, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Social Media, Twitter

Mehdi Masroor Biswas's police custody extended by 15 days

December 19, 2014 by Nasheman

Mehdi Masroor Biswas

Bengaluru: A court here Thursday extended the police custody of alleged Islamic State (IS) supporter Mehdi Masroor Biswas by 15 days for further interrogation on charges of waging war against a country which is at peace with India, police said.

“We produced Mehdi in the sessions court on expiry of his five-day custody to further interrogate him on his postings in the social media and Twitter handle (@ShamiWitness), as part of our investigation. We have secured his custody for another 15 days up to Jan 2,” city police commissioner M.N. Reddi told reporters.

Police registered a criminal case Dec 13 against Biswas under specific sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act for waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance or at peace with India.

A British news channel Dec 11 unmasked the city-based 24-year-old executive as a radical supporter of the IS through social media and Twitter.

“The investigation so far has revealed that Biswas is a propagandist of IS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries and against whom the terror group is at war,” Reddi said.

Biswas, who hails from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is employed in the foods division of a Kolkata-based company in Bengaluru.

He confessed that he was operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Levantine region comprising Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza Strip, Egypt and Libya.

His parents – Mikhael Biswas and Mamtaz Begum – who arrived in Bengaluru Wednesday from Kolkata, were allowed to meet their son at an undisclosed place, as he has been in police custody since Dec 14.

“His parents also met me and shared their concerns over his alleged involvement with the IS terror activities through the social media. I have assured them that our investigation would be impartial, unbiased and objective,” Reddi said.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore, Bengaluru, IS, ISIS, Islamic State, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Social Media, Twitter

IS banned in India, minority youths discouraged from joining: Rajnath

December 17, 2014 by Nasheman

Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh Tuesday said the Islamic State (IS) terror group has been banned in India, and congratulated the Indian minorities for discouraging their youth from joining the outfit.

“We have banned the ISIS as a first step. I will like to inform (the house) that the group has been banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Amendment Act 62,” he told the Lok Sabha, referring to the terror outfit by its earlier name ISIS.

Rajnath Singh said the group has been proscribed under the provisions of the UAPA that relates to organisations listed in the schedule to the UN Prevention and Suppression of Terrorist (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007 made under section 2 of the United Nations (Security Council) Act, 1947 and amended from time to time.

The home minister said the government had taken cognizance immediately after the IS activities began to spread in various parts of the world.

“There are only a handful or negligible number of people involved in ISIS activities in India. Their involvement too has not been direct. I congratulate the Indian minorities for discouraging their youth,” he said during question hour in the Lok Sabha.

In many developed countries like Britain and France, minority families were encouraging youth to join the IS, but Indian minorities were discouraging their children, he said.

“I congratulate the minority community for discouraging youth from getting radicalised,” Rajnath Singh said.

Responding to a supplementary question on steps taken by the government to prevent the spread of the IS, he said India has already banned the outfit and was monitoring the cyberspace to stop its propaganda.

“Cyberspace is a very serious issue. To monitor this system, it needs to be strengthened and I have asked for a committee to be constituted to monitor this.”

“We will ensure that it is properly monitored,” he added.

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a pro-Islamic State (IS) tweeter, was arrested Saturday from Bengaluru after a British news channel Dec 11 unmasked the 24-year-old executive as a supporter of the outfit through social media and Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

The home minister also assured the Lok Sabha that no innocent person from the minority community would be taken into custody with regard to suspected terror activities. If there were such instances, they could be brought to his notice.

Responding to another query on the IS, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the matter was “very, very sensitive and the details cannot be discussed”.

(IANS)

Filed Under: India, Indian Muslims Tagged With: IS, ISIS, Islamic State, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, Rajnath Singh, shamiwitness, UAPA

Pro-IS tweeter Mehdi Biswas sent to five days police custody

December 15, 2014 by Nasheman

shamiwitness

Bengaluru: A local court Sunday sent pro-Islamic State (IS) terror group tweeter Mehdi Masroor Biswas to five day police custody for interrogation, a police official said.

“We had produced Mehdi before the sessions court, which remanded him to five day police custody till Dec 18 for interrogation by our investigation team on his unlawful activities,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Abhishek Goyal told IANS here.

Biswas was arrested early Saturday following a British news channel Dec 11 unmasking the city-based 24-year-old executive as a supporter of IS through social media and Twitter handle @ShamiWitness.

“Preliminary investigation reveals that Mehdi Biswas is a propagandist of IS ideology and has been instrumental in influencing minds against our friendly countries against whom the terror group is at war,” Additional Director General of Police Hemant Nimbalkar told reporters later.

Police registered a case against Biswas under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

“We are quizzing him on his virtual and actual relations with the terror group and checking his antecedents, including mobile calls, e-mails, chat sessions and postings in the social media like Facebook, blogs and Twitter,” Nimbalkar said.

A police team raided Biswas’ one-room apartment in the northern suburb early Saturday and apart from arresting him, seized two mobiles, one laptop, incriminating documents, religious literature, pictures, pen drivers and compact discs (CDs) from the premises.

“We are also probing if Biswas or the terror group has any local presence in the form of sleeper cells or networks,” Nimbalkar added.

Biswas, who hails from Gopalpur town in West Bengal’s Nadia district, is employed in the foods division of the Kolkata-based ITC Ltd in Bengaluru.

He admitted to the probe team that he had been operating the Twitter account after he got interested in the developments of the Middle Eastern region.

He has about 17,000 Twitter followers and used to aggressively tweet by collecting information on regional developments.

Bangalore Police Comissinor Mr. M.N Reddy, said on Monday that Shamiwitness could have been anyone in the world, it is only a coincidence that he happened to be in Bangalore.

When Nasheman inquired about his Twitter being reactivated, Mr. Reddy smiled and said that he does not knows who did it.

(With inputs from IANS)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore police, Bengaluru, ISIS, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Twitter

Mehdi Masroor Biswas aka @shamiwitness had no direct contact with ISIS

December 13, 2014 by Nasheman

shamiwitness

Bengaluru: Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who went by the nomme de guerre Shamiwitness was undoubtedly the most popular English voices of the Islamic State on Twitter, but the police interrogation since his arrest Saturday Dec 13th, has revealed that he had no direct contact with ISIS or any Jihadi groups.

Biswas was detained by Bengaluru police early Saturday morning, after Britain’s Channel 4 News had aired the report regarding the country’s IT capital’s link with the Twitter account that is followed by foreign fighters.

Mehdi, an electrical engineer from Kolkata, had moved to Bengaluru in 2011. He has two sisters and his father is a retired employee of the West Bengal state Electricity Board. He had been employed with the multinational corporation as a marketing executive since 2012 at an annual salary of Rs. 5.3 lakh.

Police interrogation after Mehdi’s arrest

Mehdi got interested in the developments in middle-east countries like Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza strip, Egypt and Libya since 2003. He used to work during the day and surfed internet on a 60 GB monthly plan late into nights.

During the initial questioning, he said that he mainly concentrated on Muslims living abroad “as the Indian muslims were incapable of Jihad.” It is also learnt that more than 17,000 followers in his twitter account were English-Speakers from Europe.

Most of his tweets have been deleted and the account was shut down after the report surfaced. Even the police have not found any activity against India or anti-India tweets so far. Also there is no evidence to prove that he had planned terror attack in India. He had no previous criminal record too.

Even though Mehdi had contact with English speaking ISIS men on twitter, he did not reveal his true identity to them. Mehdi was not involved in any of the activity in propagating the ISIS agenda. He was just translating the arabic tweets into English. He collected the data and videos of ISIS from cyberspace and then posted on the internet.

Police also said that Mehdi has not travelled outside the country neither he received any funds from ISIS.

Mehdi’s interview to UK Channel 4

Channel 4’s investigators, meanwhile, discovered that Mehdi aka @ShamiWitness had used a personal email address, ElSaltador@gmail.com, to set up a personal Twitter account, @ElSaltador. Based on this lead, the channel found out that the same email address had been used to open personal LinkedIn and Google Groups accounts. The data enabled them to contact Mehdi  in Bangalore.

Reached by Channel 4, he denied that he intended to win over recruits to the Islamic State, saying his tweets only expressed his opinion. “Just because someone follows me, it doesn’t mean that I am the reason for their joining ISIS,” he said in the audio interview that was telecast along with the report.

But in the Channel 4 interview, he made clear his support for Islamic State, adding that he was prevented from joining the group by his commitments to his family.

According to Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a graduate from Brasenose College, Oxford University, and an authority on the ongoing conflict in Syria, “It would not really be accurate to characterize Shami so much an ‘IS source’ as much as a ‘disseminator’, as Peter Neumann of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization puts it…If one looks back on Shami’s Twitter feed, as more and more official IS venues of information on Twitter emerged, much of the time he was simply retweeting. Shami’s role can therefore also be described as an ‘aggregator’ of IS content, something he also did in the days before official IS (IS) provincial news feeds and the like.”

Indian government sources said the UK’s intelligence services had been contacted for any information they might have on Mehdi, but were told he was not a person of interest for any ongoing terrorism investigation.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore police, Bengaluru, ISIS, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Twitter

Mehdi Masroor Biswas, alleged owner of Twitter handle @shamiwitness detained by Bengaluru police

December 13, 2014 by Nasheman

shamiwitness

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have detained the alleged handler of the pro-ISIS twitter handle @ShamiWitness on early Saturday morning.

Top police officials confirmed the detention saying “we have the man”. But they declined to confirm whether he was arrested and under which sections was a case made out against him.

Until late on Friday, the police maintained that they hadn’t made any serious headway with the investigation and the city commissioner M N Reddi had said his team was on the job.

According to sources, the police have not been able to find evidence linking the youth directly to the @shamiwitness account or any subversive activities, but have detained him based on photographs of the suspect began circulating on the web.

“We have to wait for authorities in the US where Twitter’s servers are located to provide authentic evidence if any linking the youth’s computer systems to the @shamiwitness account,” police told the media here.

Mehdi, who spoke to The Indian Express on Friday night had expressed fears of being arrested. He claimed that he had given some information about his online activities to Channel 4 only to throw them off his back. He reportedly told the newspaper that he is not the owner of the account.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Bangalore police, Bengaluru, ISIS, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, shamiwitness, Twitter

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

KNOW US

  • About Us
  • Corporate News
  • FAQs
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh

GET INVOLVED

  • Corporate News
  • Letters to Editor
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh
  • Submissions

PROMOTE

  • Advertise
  • Corporate News
  • Events
  • NewsVoir
  • Newswire
  • Realtor arrested for NRI businessman’s murder in Andhra Pradesh

Archives

  • May 2025 (9)
  • April 2025 (50)
  • March 2025 (35)
  • February 2025 (34)
  • January 2025 (43)
  • December 2024 (83)
  • November 2024 (82)
  • October 2024 (156)
  • September 2024 (202)
  • August 2024 (165)
  • July 2024 (169)
  • June 2024 (161)
  • May 2024 (107)
  • April 2024 (104)
  • March 2024 (222)
  • February 2024 (229)
  • January 2024 (102)
  • December 2023 (142)
  • November 2023 (69)
  • October 2023 (74)
  • September 2023 (93)
  • August 2023 (118)
  • July 2023 (139)
  • June 2023 (52)
  • May 2023 (38)
  • April 2023 (48)
  • March 2023 (166)
  • February 2023 (207)
  • January 2023 (183)
  • December 2022 (165)
  • November 2022 (229)
  • October 2022 (224)
  • September 2022 (177)
  • August 2022 (155)
  • July 2022 (123)
  • June 2022 (190)
  • May 2022 (204)
  • April 2022 (310)
  • March 2022 (273)
  • February 2022 (311)
  • January 2022 (329)
  • December 2021 (296)
  • November 2021 (277)
  • October 2021 (237)
  • September 2021 (234)
  • August 2021 (221)
  • July 2021 (237)
  • June 2021 (364)
  • May 2021 (282)
  • April 2021 (278)
  • March 2021 (293)
  • February 2021 (192)
  • January 2021 (222)
  • December 2020 (170)
  • November 2020 (172)
  • October 2020 (187)
  • September 2020 (194)
  • August 2020 (61)
  • July 2020 (58)
  • June 2020 (56)
  • May 2020 (36)
  • March 2020 (48)
  • February 2020 (109)
  • January 2020 (162)
  • December 2019 (174)
  • November 2019 (120)
  • October 2019 (104)
  • September 2019 (88)
  • August 2019 (159)
  • July 2019 (122)
  • June 2019 (66)
  • May 2019 (276)
  • April 2019 (393)
  • March 2019 (477)
  • February 2019 (448)
  • January 2019 (693)
  • December 2018 (736)
  • November 2018 (572)
  • October 2018 (611)
  • September 2018 (692)
  • August 2018 (667)
  • July 2018 (469)
  • June 2018 (440)
  • May 2018 (616)
  • April 2018 (774)
  • March 2018 (338)
  • February 2018 (159)
  • January 2018 (189)
  • December 2017 (142)
  • November 2017 (122)
  • October 2017 (146)
  • September 2017 (178)
  • August 2017 (201)
  • July 2017 (222)
  • June 2017 (155)
  • May 2017 (205)
  • April 2017 (156)
  • March 2017 (178)
  • February 2017 (195)
  • January 2017 (149)
  • December 2016 (143)
  • November 2016 (169)
  • October 2016 (167)
  • September 2016 (137)
  • August 2016 (115)
  • July 2016 (117)
  • June 2016 (125)
  • May 2016 (171)
  • April 2016 (152)
  • March 2016 (201)
  • February 2016 (202)
  • January 2016 (217)
  • December 2015 (210)
  • November 2015 (177)
  • October 2015 (284)
  • September 2015 (243)
  • August 2015 (250)
  • July 2015 (188)
  • June 2015 (216)
  • May 2015 (281)
  • April 2015 (306)
  • March 2015 (297)
  • February 2015 (280)
  • January 2015 (245)
  • December 2014 (287)
  • November 2014 (254)
  • October 2014 (185)
  • September 2014 (98)
  • August 2014 (8)

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in