The Tamil Nadu Police have filed a case against state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman S G Suryah for a tweet criticising the breaking of Lord Ganesha’s murtis at a mall in Bahrain.

In his tweet, Suryah wondered why the group of women who took the murtis from a shelf and breaking them, were such “religious fanatics”.

In response to the tweet, advocate Mani Maran has filed a case against the BJP spokesman saying it promoted religious hatred. He has quoted various sections of the Indian Penal Code to take action against Suryah.

When contacted, Suryah said he got to know about the case only after reading it on the website of a Tamil weekly.

“No one from the police has contacted me on the issue,” he told Swarajya.

He said the complaint of the advocate lacked merit and wouldn’t stand judicial scrutiny.

A troll said that the case has been filed now but no action will be taken until elections to the state assembly, scheduled to be held in May next year.

“After that, action will be taken,” the troll said, predicting that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) will come to power and take action.

Responding to Suryah’s tweet, the Bahrain Ministry of Interior said that police had taken action against the 54-year-old woman for the incident at Juffair. The act defamed a sect and its rituals and her act would be referred to the “public prosecution”.

The response meant that the woman had been questioned for her act and was allowed to go home. At the most, she would face action for “creating disturbance”.

The Ganesh murtis were apparently kept for sale at the shop, reportedly owned by an Indian, ahead of the Ganesh Chathurthi on 22 August (Saturday).

The woman took almost all murtis kept on the shelf and smashed them to the ground, asking an employee why they were kept there.