Patna: Identity theft is a real threat in an India that is rushing to embrace new-age digital technology as the panacea for all old-world ills such as leakage in government benefits reaching the common man, and Bihar BJP president Nityanand Rai has learnt that the hard way.

Rai has lodged a complaint with the Patna police's information-technology cell after it came to light that some miscreant(s) had opened a duplicate Facebook profile in his name and been sending salacious private messages to profiles belonging to women.

A snapshot of the fake profile asking a woman to send her pictures has surfaced on social media, and the "chat" is dated December 13.

The woman, who seems to be acquainted with Rai, in her reply said that her pictures are on her Facebook profile, but the fake Rai keeps insisting she send him her recent pictures, saying that he needs the pictures for some important work.

The fake Rai had also passed lewd comments at her.

Sources said an acquaintance of Rai informed him about the fake profile, after which he approached the police on Thursday.

"I have only one Facebook account," Rai said. "Some nuisance element, by using my name and pictures, has made a dummy account and has sent vulgar messages to women with an objective to defame my reputation."

The Bihar BJP chief said that earlier as well, "some persons had tried to hack my Facebook page and in this connection I had made a police complaint, but this time the hacker has crossed all limits".

Like most political leaders, Rai's Facebook page is handled by professionals though he too looks after the account. Rai's original Facebook page - which has a blue tick indicating it has been verified by Facebook - has 2.10 lakh "likes" and more than 24,000 "followers".

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj confirmed receiving the Rai's complaint.

"We have received a complaint from BJP state president. The IT cell of Patna police has been pressed on job to find out the person who created a fake Facebook account of the BJP leader."