BENGALURU: The alleged handler of the ISIS twitter account @shamiwitness, Mehdi Masroor Biswas, has been remanded to judicial custody after the term of his police custody ended on Friday.

The CCB police produced Mehdi before the court on Friday afternoon and did not make any requests for extension of his police custody.

However, they told the court that they would apply for the same if they needed his custody in the future. Following this, the judge remanded him in the judicial custody.

Meanwhile, the officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), who were expected to seek Mehdi’s custody, did not apply for the same.

Following the court order, Mehdi was taken to the Parappana Agrahara central prison in the evening. Elaborate security arrangements were made at court as well as the prison as Mehdi was brought there.

Mehdi, a native of West Bengal, was arrested by the city police from his apartment in Ayyappanagar at Jalahalli in the early hours of December 13.

He was in the police custody for 22 days and he has been questioned on various aspects by the police. The police are also getting ready to file a chargesheet against Mehdi.

‘Was in touch with ISIS’
City Police Commissioner M.N. Reddi said the investigations have revealed that Mehdi was in direct contact with some ISIS leaders in Iraq.

"More than 12,000 of his tweets revealed that he was in contact with the ISIS top leaders through the social netwroking site.

The investigators have questioned him about it," he added. Mehdi, who has been remanded in judicial custody, had been kept in a cell that is in the same block where other terror suspects have been lodged, prison sources said.