COIMBATORE: Days after India banned the terror outfit, Islamic State (IS), a youth from Coimbatore was detained on Friday for pasting a sticker hailing the outfit on his bike. However, he was let off after extracting a surety.
According to sources, a few days ago some passerby had noticed the man, identified as Mohammed Harsad, riding a motorcycle which had a sticker supporting IS and informed the police.
“On Friday, we spotted the bike near Lorry Pettai at Ukkadam and detained the rider Mohammed,” said a police officer. On questioning the youth, who is a resident of Karumbukadai, the police learnt that he had previously been arrested for hurling petrol bombs at the house of Indu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath in Coimbatore.
“We interrogated him to ascertain if he was an active member of the IS or made any attempts to join the banned outfit or acted as an agent to recruit cadres for the outfit. But he told us that he was misguided by reports on some websites and television channels hailing the IS and pasted the sticker,” an officer said.
Mohammed reportedly apologised for his misadventure after which he was produced before the Deputy Commissioner of Police Pravesh Kumar, who let him off after extracting a surety for `10,000 and an undertaking that he would not indulge in criminal activity.