Thiruvananthapuram | The office of AICC general secretary K C Venugopal has filed a complaint with Kerala police chief Anil Kant alleging illegal cloning of his mobile number by hackers and making fraudulent calls for ulterior motives.

In a tweet posted on Wednesday carrying the copy of the complaint filed with the state police chief, Venugopal said: "Since yesterday, hackers are using caller ID spoofing and impersonating my phone number and making spam calls. Everyone is alerted to report any suspicious calls and avoid responding to such hackers." "My office has filed a complaint with @TheKeralaPolice & I expect swift action," he said.

The complaint filed by Venugopal's secretary K Sarat Chandran referred to instances of two persons receiving such alleged illegal phone calls.

He alleged that the unknown persons had further been illegally/fraudulently calling certain individuals from cloned SIM cards impersonating either Venugopal or someone from his staff "for ulterior motives and for the purpose of sabotaging the selection processes of candidates and/or duping individuals of their money." "It is absolutely necessary that appropriate legal proceedings, including criminal investigation under the prevailing laws, are initiated forthwith against the said unknown persons so that they are unable to cause any harm," the complainant further said.