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  • Mehdi Masroor Biswas
    Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a Bengaluru based man who allegedly operated Islamic States (IS) most influential twitter account, was arrested from his house, in Bengaluru on Dec. 13, 2014IANS
  • N Masroor Biswas father of Mehdi Masroor Biswas
    Father of Mehdi Masroor Biswas, Bengaluru based man who allegedly operated Islamic States (IS) most influential twitter account was arrested from his house, accused of waging war against a friendly nation and violation of Information Technology Act, in Kolkata on Dec. 13, 2014.null
  • Mehdi Masroor Biswas house
    House of Mehdi Masroor Biswas, Bengaluru based man who allegedly operated Islamic States (IS) most influential twitter account was arrested from his house, accused of waging war against a friendly nation and violation of Information Technology Act, at Jalahalli, in Bengaluru on Dec. 13, 2014.IANS

A magistrate court on Saturday night remanded Bengaluru-based Islamic State Twitter account holder Mehdi Masroor Biswas to five days police custody.

"Bengaluru CCB Police has got five days police remand of Mehdi Masroor Biswas. He was presented before the Magistrate last night," DCP Crime Abhishek Goyal told PTI.

Mehdi, 24, was working with Indian conglomerate ITC Ltd and was arrested from his house in Jalahalli on Saturday. He has been accused of waging war against a friendly nation and violation of Information Technology Act.

Mehdi's father N. Masroor Biswas however believes his son is innocent and has been framed. "I don't believe it. I'm shocked. My son has been framed by his enemies or mine," NDTV quoted him as saying.

Biswas, a resident of Koikhali in West Bengal and a former employee at State Electricity Board, said his son's Twitter account was hacked.

"My son said he did not understand how it has happened. He said his internet account is hacked. I don't believe that my son has any link with IS," IANS quoted Mehdi's father as saying.

Mehdi's link with ISIS was revealed after Channel 4 News reported saying a Bengaluru-based man Mehdi was behind ISIS' top Twitter account. The channel made the revelations based on an investigation conducted by them.

The UK-based news channel had reported that Mehdi was handling ISIS' most influential Twitter account Shami Witness and is also suspected of recruiting people online for the ongoing jihadi war in Syria and Iraq.

The account had 17,000 followers and most of them were English-speaking members of ISIS.

"He was particularly close to the English-speaking terrorists of IS and became a source of incitement and information for the new recruits trying to join IS," Hindustan Times quoted Bengaluru police commissioner MN Reddi as saying.

Mehdi is said to have no direct links with the Islamic State and he never recruited anyone or facilitated any such activity in India, Reddi said.