KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court today freed Malaysian Crime Watch Task Force (MyWatch) chairman Datuk R. Sri Sanjeevan from his detention under the Prevention of Crime Act (POCA) 2013.
Judicial Commissioner Mohamad Shariff Abu Samah, in allowing Sanjeevan's habeas corpus application, ruled that his detention was null and void.
Mohamad Shariff also said that a detention of this nature requires strict compliance of the law.
Sanjeevan, 32, challenged his 21-day remand order made against him under POCA, by the magistrate's court on July 11.
"There are doubts in the detention order and those doubts open up to various interpretations. The order, issued in the magistrate's court says that Sanjeevan has been charged and committed to prison, when he is still under investigation and has been remanded.
"Therefore the order is defective."
Sanjeevan who was remanded under Section 4(1)(a) of POCA, was first arrested on June 22 after a gambling operator claimed that the anti-crime activist extorted RM25,000 from him as protection money.
Since his initial arrest, several reports have been lodged against Sanjeevan for alleged extortion.
Sanjeevan was represented by Gobind Singh Deo while deputy public prosecutor Mohammad Al-Saifi Hashim, prosecuted.