Shami Witness, ran one of the most influential ISIS Twitter accounts. He was in regular touch with ISIS recruits from Britain and other countries.
Shami Witness, a Bangalore-based executive ran one of the most influential ISIS Twitter accounts. He was in regular touch with ISIS recruits from Britain and other countries. He is one of the many ISIS supporters in India.Twitter

The Bengaluru police have reportedly arrested the man believed to be behind the ISIS propagandist Twitter account 'Shami Witness'. 

Police said they have detained an executive of a multinational company in Bengaluru in connection with the Twitter account, though they have refrained from revealing the name of the person. 

"He is with us," a senior police official told Press Trust of India on Saturday. 

The police were on the hunt for Mehdi Masroor Biswas since Friday after UK's Channel 4 tracked the ISIS 'fanboy' Twitter account to India's IT city.

The Bengaluru police is slated to hold a press conference at 1 pm on Saturday. 

According to reports, Mehdi is likely to be slapped with charges under Section 66F of Information Technology Act, 2000 for 'cyber terrorism' and can face life imprisonment.

Mehdi has been identified as the person behind the ISIS fanboy Twitter account that has more than 17,000 followers. He is said to have tweeted gory pictures and videos of beheadings and killings by the Islamic state in the Middle East.

However, Mehdi had reportedly told some sections of the Indian media that he was not behind the jihadist account on Twitter and that he was being "framed". 

"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," Masroor told The Indian Express.

"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. 

In an interview with Channel 4, a UK channel that first tracked the account to India, Mehdi had said that he would "not resist arrest".