KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 ― Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) today condemned the police force for its alleged “heavy-handed action” in arresting its secretary-general S. Arutchelvan and detaining him in lock-up overnight.

Accusing the police of wielding the highly-criticised Sedition Act 1948 as a weapon of fear, the party demanded in a statement here that Arutchelvan or “Arul” be immediately release and all charges against him dropped.

“A request to Arul to come to the police station would have been sufficient,” PSM’s Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj said in the statement.

“Surely the time of the 15 police officers could have been better utilised to combat crime! Furthermore the police decided to make this arrest on Chinese New Year public holidays.”

According to Jeyakumar, it was unnecessary to keep Arutchelvan in lock-up or get him remanded as all PSM members are willing to cooperate with any police investigation.

“The police are attempting to clamp down on any criticism of the BN (Barisan Nasional) administration.

“We would like to remind the police and their BN masters that 2015 is quite different from 1948, and attempts to intimidate the public will backfire,” said the Sungai Siput MP.

Director of Kuala Lumpur contingent crime prevention and community safety department SAC Zainuddin Ahmad told Malay Mail Online yesterday that Arutchelvan was detained over a PSM statement on February 10 denouncing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy verdict as a “political judgment, beyond reasonable doubt”.

Zainuddin however did not respond to Malay Mail Online’s queries at the time of the arrest, which came at the evening of the Chinese New Year.

According to a report by English daily theSun last week, the police were looking to investigate Jingga 13 chief and PKR leader Fariz Musa, Arutchelvan, and Penang state exco Dr Afif Bahardin.

IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar was reported saying that Fariz will be investigated allegedly for inciting street protests, Arutchelvan for claiming political conspiracy in Anwar’s case, while Afif had purportedly asked the public to no longer trust the judiciary.

Putrajaya had previously pledged to repeal the Sedition Act 1948 that critics say is used to stifle political opposition and dissent, but later announced that it will be retained and expanded instead.

The Federal Court on Tuesday upheld the Court of Appeal’s 2014 ruling that had reversed Anwar’s acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, also sentencing him to five years’ jail.