Raipur police in Chhattisgarh asked BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra to appear before it in person or through video-conferencing at 4pm on Sunday in connection with an FIR lodged against him and senior colleague Raman Singh over an alleged fake toolkit, officials said.

The FIR was filed in Civil Lines police station on May 19 on the complaint of an NSUI functionary who alleged Singh, Patra and others had circulated a fake toolkit using the letterhead of the Congress.

An official said not complying with the notice would attract legal action.

Similar notice has been served on Singh asking him to remain present in his residence at 12:30pm on Monday for recording of statements in connection with the case, the Civil Lines police official added.

Patra, who had first made the allegation that the Congress had prepared a toolkit to defame the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over alleged pandemic mismanagement, had tweeted on Tuesday: “Friends look at the #CongressToolKit in extending help to the needy during the Pandemic! More of a PR exercise with the help of ‘Friendly Journalists’ & ‘Influencers’ than a soulful endeavour. Read yourselves the agenda of the Congress: #CongressToolKitExposed.”

The BJP spokesperson had attached to the tweet screenshots of the alleged toolkit.

Twitter on Friday marked this tweet as “manipulated media”. The microblogging site’s policy says this on manipulated media: “...We may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated.”

The policy asks people not to share “deceptively altered media on Twitter in ways that mislead or deceive people about the media’s authenticity where threats to physical safety or other serious harm may result”.