Kochi: Award-winning Malayalam filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan was granted bail by a local court here on Friday, a day after he was arrested on a complaint filed by popular actor Manju Warrier.

He was granted bail by the Aluva First Class Judicial Magistrate's Court.

Incidentally, even though the police were willing to grant him police station bail on Thursday night, he was not willing and finally the police were forced to present him before the court on Friday.

The court asked why he refused when he could have got police station bail, he said he wanted to say a few things to the court.

The court heard it and granted him bail after two sureties asked to stand as guarantee.

Sasidharan was arrested from Neyyattinkara in Thiruvananthapuram based on charges of blackmailing the actor and maligning her reputation via social media, police said on Thursday.
Minutes before a team of police personnel took him into custody based on the actor's complaint registered at Elamakkara police station in Kochi, the director appeared on Facebook live claiming that his life was at risk and some people were forcibly trying to take him away.

However, setting aside his resistance, the policemen took him into custody and took him to Kochi.

Elamakkara police later confirmed that the 'Sexi Durga' filmmaker was arrested but they did not divulge details about the charges slapped against him. 

Sasidharan, who helmed Manju Warrier-starrer "Kayattam" which is yet to be released, recently penned a series of Facebook posts claiming that the actress's life was in danger and she was under the control of certain people with vested interests.

He also levelled serious allegations against her managers- Bineesh Chandran and Binu Nair. The filmmaker, the other day, also shared on his FB page the copy of a letter which he claimed to have sent to the President of India and the Supreme Court Chief Justice raising concerns on the law and order situation citing various incidents in Kerala from the recent death of a transgender to the Manju Warrier case.

But, neither the actress nor the managers reacted to his FB posts in open. Warrier reportedly lodged the police complaint against him on Wednesday.