Maharashtra Cyber has filed a case against a social media account claiming to parody popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee for making allegedly false claims about Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla’s daughter, reported PTI.

Maharashtra Cyber is the nodal agency under the state government “for Cyber Crime investigation and maintenance of Cyber Security”.

A report in an English-language daily on Saturday had claimed that the case was filed against Rathee himself. The Youtuber, however, clarified that the “alleged post” was made by “some random parody” account and that he had “nothing to do with this”.

Maharashtra Cyber said that an X account with the handle @dhruvrahtee had claimed on social media that Birla’s daughter, Anjali Birla, had cleared the Union Public Service Commission exam without appearing for it, reported PTI.

The YouTuber’s X handle is @dhruv_rathee.

When told that the account in question did not belong to Rathee, an official with the agency told PTI that the matter was under investigation.

“This is the fan and parody account and not affiliated with the original account of @dhruv_rathee,” the X bio of the account reads. “Not impersonating anyone. This account is Parody.”

After a complaint by a relative of the Lok Sabha speaker, the police filed the case on charges of defamation, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and making statements conducive to mischief. The first information report invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology Act.

On Saturday, the parody account said on X that it had deleted its posts and comments about Anjali Birla on the directions of Maharashtra Cyber. The account issued an apology and claimed that it was unaware of the facts of the matter.

“As directed by @MahaCyber1, I have deleted all my posts and comments on Anjali Birla, I will like to apologise as I was unaware about the facts and copied someone else tweets and shared it,” the account wrote.

In May, the Manipur Police had booked an anonymous social media account claiming to be a fan of the author Arundhati Roy for a post describing the state’s dominant Meitei community as “terrorists”.

The case was filed on the complaint of a member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The handle was booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to promoting enmity between different groups, among others.

Also read: Does Dhruv Rathee’s popularity worry the BJP?