KOTTAYAM: Hindu Aikyavedi state president K P Sasikala , who was taken into preventive custody (detention) early on Saturday, was granted bail by a court in Pathanamthitta . She will have to appear before the court on December 3.Sasikala dropped her plans to go back to the hill shrine on Saturday night itself due to health issues. She took rest in an Ashram in Koonamkara in Pathanamthitta.Prior to that, there were tense moments outside Ranni police station where she was brought around 4am. Men and women arrived in large numbers to protest against her detention under CrPC section151. Members of various Hindu outfits turned up as the day progressed and they chanting Ayyappa hymns.Meanwhile, Sasikala – who had begun a hunger strike right from the time she was stopped by police at Marakkoottam on Friday night – continued her hunger strike at the station. She insisted on returning to Sabarimala and wanted the police to drop her back. Soon, Pathanamthitta P T Narayanan held talks with the protesters as well as Sasikala.A decision was taken to present her before the sub-divisional magistrate court in Thiruvalla. Police filed a report, adding CrPC section 110E (security for good behaviour from habitual offenders). The court granted her bail after executing bonds of Rs 25,000 each with two sureties. After her release, Sasikala said it is her right to listen to the song ‘Harivarasanam’, played at Sannidhanam when the sanctum sanctorum closed at night and witness ‘Neyyabhishekam’ in the morning. She also said that she was taken into custody forcibly around 1.30am.

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