The Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in the city convicted Islamic State (IS) propagandist Mehdi Masroor Biswas of terrorism and waging war against a friendly Asiatic ally, on January 16. The court is likely to announce the quantum of his sentence on Saturday.
Biswas, a techie hailing from West Bengal and working in Bengaluru, was unmasked as the person behind the Twitter handle @ShamiWitness, which was giving out accurate information about the advances of IS in 2013-14, following a documentary on U.K. television Channel 4 featured him. Sleuths from the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru city police, had identified him as Biswas, tracked him down to Jalahalli and arrested him on December 13, 2014.
Biswas had claimed he had no direct links to the IS but had been tweeting about the ground updates, accumulating information from radical Islamic handles and websites on the Internet. However, he was accused of predicting the beheading of a journalist of the United States of America and a U.K. aid worker. He had also called for support for the IS in Kashmir. He had also come into contact with IS fighters through social media, the 36,986-page chargesheet alleged.
