Filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who was arrested following a complaint filed by actor Manju Warrier on charges of blackmailing her, was on Friday given bail by a local court at Aluva near Kochi.
Sasidharan, arrested on Thursday, was produced before the Aluva first class judicial nagistrate court near Kochi after he refused to go on station bail.
The magistrate's court heard him and gave him bail upon furnishing sureties.
The police told PTI that they were willing to let him go on station bail on Thursday night itself.
"But he was insisting that he be taken to court. We produced him before the Aluva magistrate's court from where he procured bail," the police said.
Sasidharan, a known filmmaker in Malayalam, was arrested for allegedly blackmailing the actor and maligning her reputation through social media.
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 had appeared on Facebook live claiming that his life was at risk and some people were forcibly trying to take him away.
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 Chief Justice of India 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 has reacted to his FB posts.
Warrier lodged the police complaint against him on Wednesday.
