The Kochi police on May 5 took Malayalam filmmaker Sanal Kumar Sasidharan into custody from Parassala in Thiruvananthapuram for allegedly stalking actress Manju Warrier and sending her unsolicited messages on phone. The Elamakkara police had said, they would reach Kochi with the director and record his arrest.
Sasidharan was booked under section 354D of the IPC. The offence is bailable. According to the police, there was one instance of physical stalking and several instances of unsolicited messages being sent to Manju by Sasidharan since 2019. The police explained that the filmmaker was sending her messages despite being blocked online, and was switching from one platform to another.