A case of cheating has been registered against the brother of a minister in the Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, for allegedly using photographs of the chief minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promote a mobile phone brand, PTI reported on Wednesday.

The First Information Report against Lalit Agarwal, the brother of Muzaffarnagar MLA and minister Kapil Dev Agarwal, was registered on December 26 at Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station, according to The Indian Express.

Lalit Agarwal, who runs an advertising agency, had put up photos of Modi and Adityanath on a hoarding in the run-up to the launch of InBlock phones by FESSChain, which is part of JaiTech India, on December 22, The Indian Express reported. Another advertising firm, which is run by a leading Hindi newspaper, is also involved in the case. The newspaper’s general manager has also been named in the FIR.

“The minister’s brother runs an advertising company and it is said that the founder of the phone company got together with him for the promotion,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express. “That advertising company then gave it to the newspaper’s advertising company. After the matter came to light, the photos were removed.”

Meanwhile, Kapil Dev Agarwal has alleged that his brother was being picked upon as a “soft target”, PTI reported. “There is no merit in the case, and he [Lalit Agarwal] will be cleared of all the charges,” he said.

In a statement from FESSChain, the company’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Durga Prasad Tripathi offered an apology, saying that it was a mistake to use the photos without permission, reported The Indian Express.

The Uttar Pradesh unit of Congress has demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the matter, according to PTI.

“The way in which in the garb of ‘vocal for local’ [a Union government initiative], a minister held a press conference on the launch of a mobile phone and said that along with being ‘swadeshi’ [indigenous], it was part of the skill development scheme proves that corruption is at its peak in Uttar Pradesh,” the state’s Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said, in reference to Kapil Dev Agarwal.