Anupriya Patel Disowns 'Fake' Account After Communal Tweets

New Delhi: Anupriya Patel, the youngest minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, has told the police that controversial tweets were posted in her name from a "fake" account.

The "fake" account is tagged in tweets from ministers like Maneka Gandhi and Nirmala Sitharaman, congratulating her on becoming a minister. What she says is her correct account was set up this month and does not have a single tweet till now.

Hours after she was sworn in, a couple of tweets from the handle @anupriya_patel, raised eyebrows but were deleted quickly.

Ms Patel, 36, went to the police yesterday and complained that a fake account is being used to damage her social and political image.

"To avoid a needless controversy, I am informing you that my authorized twitter account is @AnupriyaSPatel," she says in a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar Verma. The account has zero tweets and 423 followers.

The "fake" account, set up in August 2014, has been suspended. It had 179 tweets and over 5,000 followers. The last posts were re-tweets of congratulatory messages from ministers.

My compliments to Smt. Anupriya Patel @anupriya_patel for being sworn in as Minister of State at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. #ModiCabinet

— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) July 5, 2016

Congratulations @anupriya_patel @ppchaudharypali @VijayGoelBJP @FagganSKulaste

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) July 5, 2016