Bengaluru executive Mehdi Masroor Biswas whi is now reportedly detained by the police had earlier denied that he was the one operating the Twitter handle @ShamiWitness – one of the most influencial Twitter handle supporting the terror group Islamic State.
According to an interview in the Indian Express Mehdi had claimed that he only spoke about his support to IS in order to get the UK-based Channel 4 television reporter off his back
"When Channel 4 called me first and asked if @ShamiWitness was my Twitter handle, I did not oppose it..my outright rejection would not have convinced them. I therefore decided to admit that I was indeed @ShamiWitness in the hope that they would not air the programme," Mehdi said in the interview.
"But I am telling you that I am not @ShamiWitness. Somebody must have hacked my email account which I used as ElSaltador@gmail.com and used it to upload stuff. I have been framed. Someone must have planted this," he said.
ShamiWitness had 17,800 Twitter followers before the account was taken down, reportedly after a call from the offices of Channel 4.
The account tweeted about 1,30,000 times, with a viewership of 2 million a month, according to Channel 4, before it was closed.His tweets repeatedly encouraged British jihadis, speaking to them before they left to join Islamic State, and praising them as martyrs if they died.
Channel 4 claims Mehdi actually spoke to the organisation. Apparently he harboured a desire to join Islamic State but could not. "If I had a chance to leave everything and join them I might have.. my family needs me here", is what he allegedly told Channel 4. Perversely, he also expressed glee about the rapes and murders of Kurdish fighters via his Twitter account.
More disturbingly, the man comes across as extremely normal on his Facebook account. Channel 4 says that 'On his Facebook pages he regularly shares jokes, funny images and talks about superhero movies, posting pictures of pizza dinners with friends, and Hawaiian parties at work.' Apparently Mehdi also opposes rape on his Facebook account.
The twitter account has been shut down.
With agency inputs
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