The Kerala police cyber cell has booked Union minister of state for skill development and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar for allegedly spreading communal hatred over Sunday’s blasts at the regional convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kalamassery.

BJP leader Chandrasekhar had courted controversy with two tweets on Sunday accusing the Left and the Congress of “appeasement politics”. He had also accused chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan of protesting in Delhi against Israel when the blasts rocked Kerala.

The FIR registered on Tuesday booked Chandrasekhar under IPC Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 153A (promoting enmity between people on the grounds of religion, race, etc) and Section 120(o) of the Kerala Police Act 2011 (causing, through any means of communication, a nuisance of himself to any person by repeated or undesirable message). Conviction could carry a jail term of up to three years.

The FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint by a cyber cell sub-inspector, although the state Congress digital media cell had on Monday lodged a separate complaint against Chandrasekhar and BJP national secretary Anil K. Antony, son of Congress veteran A.K. Antony, for “flaring up communal enmity and inciting violence in Kerala through hate comments”.

The case is seen as a natural outcome of a caution by the state police chief on Sunday against any attempt to spew communal venom in the aftermath of the blasts. Social media handles sympathetic to the Sangh Parivar and its cause were flooded with posts pointing fingers at a particular community for the incident.

But the dramatic surrender and confession by Dominic Martin, a disgruntled former member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, within hours of the blasts had come as a big relief for the police and the political establishment, faced with a barrage of hate speeches against a community.

In his tweets, Chandrasekhar had alleged that Palestinian militant outfit Hamas had made “open calls” for “jihad”.

“Dirty shameless appeasement politics by a discredited CM (and HM) @pinarayivijayan besieged by corruption charges. Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians,” Chandrasekhar had tweeted on Sunday.

He was referring to Vijayan being in Delhi for a CPM meeting at the time of the explosions in Kerala and how a solidarity meeting in Malappuram screened a speech by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal recently.

Chandrasekhar reacted to the FIR by accusing INDIA coalition partners of targeting him. “So the two INDI alliance partners @RahulGandhi and @PinarayiVijayan have jointly filed a ‘case’ against me. Two of the biggest appeasers in Indian politics who shamelessly appease poisonous radical violent organisations like SDPI, PFI and Hamas, whose politics have caused radicalisation over decades from J&K to Punjab to Kerala and caused many innocent lives and security forces lives to be lost — trying to threaten me with a case for exposing their appeasement of Hamas.”