KOCHI: The high drama that followed the arrest of award-winning filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan following a complaint by actor Manju Warrier ended on Friday afternoon after he was granted bail by the magistrate court in Aluva.
Sasidharan was produced at the court after he preferred not to apply for bail from the police station.
On Friday morning, while he was taken to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Aluva, Sasidharan told reporters that he would be making a complaint against the police at the court. He said he will make several revelations before the magistrate. At the court, the magistrate asked about his decision not to avail bail from the court. Sasidharan said he has to make some revelations regarding the case. On this, the court asked whether he faced any harassment from the part of the police after he was taken into custody. Sasidharan said that he faced no harassment from the police. The court told Sasidharan that the revelations regarding other aspects of the case can be made to the police probing the case. Later, the court granted him bail after two sureties appeared for him.
Coming out from the court, Sasidharan said that he did not stalk Manju. According to him, he had sent messages to Manju that her life was in danger. However, she did not respond to several messages. Then he decided to make social media posts and write to the President of India and Chief Justice of India. Answering the questions of reporters, he admitted that he had made a love proposal to Manju. "This has nothing to do with the love proposal. I fear that the life of Manju is in danger. I tried to meet Manju several times regarding our movie Kayyattam which could not be released yet. I hope that police and court bring out the truth behind the delay," he said.
A case against Sasidharan was registered under IPC 354 D for stalking Manju following her complaint at Elamakkara Police Station in Kochi on Wednesday. However, dramatic incidents followed when police personnel from Kochi in civil dress reached Parassala to arrest the filmmaker on Thursday afternoon. He went live on Facebook and said that a group of persons was attempting to kidnap him. He said that his life was in danger and he was being tortured by the police.
Sasidharan was brought to the Elamakkara Police Station around 9 pm on Thursday from Parassala. After recording his statement, police decided to grant him bail from the police station itself on Thursday. As part of the plan, Sasidharan's relatives were told to arrange sureties to complete the bail procedure. However, Sasidharan refused to cooperate with the police and did not avail the provision for bail from the police station. Instead, he insisted on being produced before the magistrate. Sasidharan's mobile phone was seized and would be sent for forensic examination.