I am a soldier: Mehdi Biswas doesn't regret handling pro-ISIS Twitter account

I am a soldier: Mehdi Biswas doesn't regret handling pro-ISIS Twitter account

FP Staff December 19, 2014, 11:04:50 IST

Biswas has shown no sign of regret for his activities and has identified himself as a ‘soldier’ for IS.

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I am a soldier: Mehdi Biswas doesn't regret handling pro-ISIS Twitter account

After the arrest of pro-ISIS Twitter account handler Mehdi Masroor Biswas in Bengaluru, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had sought to reassure the nation by saying that the Islamic State has ’negligible’ following in India. However, recent reports show that Biswas’ allegiance to the terrorist organisation is rather worrying, as he has shown no sign of regret for his activities and has identified himself as a ‘soldier’ for the group.

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According to a Times of India report, Biswas, chose to call himself a ‘messenger’ for the terror outfit.  TOI says that while he was being escorted to the court in Bengaluru, Biswas told an advocate, “I’m a soldier and messenger. I don’t regret what I’ve done.”

Mehdi Biswas. IBN Live.

The Central Crime Branch sources told the paper, “We need to take Mehdi to other states — particularly, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra. We’ve come across links between Mehdi and some persons staying in these states.”

The Indian Express reports that though no direct link between Biswas and ISIS could be established yet, they are looking at the possibility of him being in touch with an Indian-origin IS militant in Syria.

Apart from putting out nearly 1.2 lakh tweets, Masroor also exchanged around 11,000 direct messages through his Twitter account and one of the persons with whom he communicated is suspected to be an Indian youth in Syria, recruited earlier this year along with three others from Maharashtra,” the police told IE .

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Some reports suggest that these messages contained acronyms that only Biswas can decipher for the police.

According to another report on The Hindu  says that Biswas has several e-mail ids and has refused to give the police the passwords of the same, claiming to have forgotten the details.

“The report the investigators submitted to the court on Thursday suggested that Mehdi was not co-operating with the probe as he claimed to have forgotten the passwords to the email accounts. An official said it was important as Mehdi may have used them to contact other suspected IS ideologues and fighters,” Hindu reports.

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However, another challenge facing the Bengaluru Police is the fact that many of the charges pinned on Biswas might not hold.

A TOI article points out that Biswas has been charged under “Section 125 IPC which deals with the ‘crime of waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with government of India”. The article explains that since Biswas, unlike Areef Majid, never left India, the police would have to prove that the content of his tweets and direct messages on Twitter were enough to amount to as waging war against India, else the charges might not hold. Biswas has also been charged under the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act, which might not hold as well for lack of evidence.

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However Biswas is also charged with Section 66A of the IT Act, which deals with spreading hateful content online and if the Twitter account is linked to him, these are likely to stick. The maximum punishment under the section in three years.

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