Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin has refuted claims by businessman Deepak Jaikishan that the latter paid him RM50,000 and gave him a Sony laptop to remove articles about the businessman from his website Malaysia Today .

"If he paid me RM50,000 to remove the articles, he wasted his money, as the articles are still on Malaysia Today ... they are still in the archives.

NONE "If you go to Malaysia Today and type ‘Deepak', all the articles I have written about him are still there," the blogger told Malaysiakini in a Skype video interview on Sunday.

He also denied receiving a Sony laptop from Deepak.

"I am a bit more sophisticated, I use a Macbook Pro. If you want to bribe me, it must be a Macbook Pro and iPhone... I go for the latest stuff... please, give me more credit than this," the blogger jokingly said.

Deepak made the accusations in a statement and repeated the claims in an interview with the media on April 16, saying that he met the blogger, popularly known as RPK, during a dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Subang Jaya through an intermediary, a Chinese ‘datuk'.

It was then, Deepak claimed, that he paid the blogger to remove an article written about him in return for RM50,000 and a Sony Laptop, claiming that RPK was nothing more than a blackmailer who sought to profit by attacking people in his blog, adding that he was not the only one who had to pay off the blogger.

Indian man gatecrashed

Quizzed about this, RPK admitted that he did meet with a Chinese ‘datuk' for dinner in a Japanese restaurant in Subang Jaya after he was released from detention under the ISA three years ago, adding that the ‘datuk' was a close family friend of 30 years.

He also acknowledged that there was an Indian man who gatecrashed their dinner, but professed ignorance as to who the person was or why the individual was there.

"It was supposed to be with his (the Chinese datuk's) family and my family. Suddenly there was this person, I don't know who he was, he walked in as a gatecrasher, sat down and joined us for dinner, I was not introduced to this guy," claimed the blogger.

He said the Indian person who sat down at the other side of the table did come over to take a photo with him and professed to be a Malaysia Today reader.

Such an incidence, RPK said, was a regular occurrence for him, though 90 percent of the times he didn't know who these people (who gatecrashed) were.

He also refused to comment on speculation that his wife was ill with cancer, saying that he gave no thought to such unfounded allegations from unidentified persons. It was up to those making such claims to prove their case, he added.

NONE The blogger's retort against Deepak came after the once elusive businessman called a press conference to tell about his involvement with Premier Najib Razak and his family, which Deepak ( right )  said was a business arrangement and not what RPK made it out to be in the Malaysia Today articles.

Deepak said he had to defend himself after the blogger launched another series of articles accusing him of using favours to obtain a loan of RM600 million and other business irregularities, citing these claims had a direct negative impact on his business as opposed to RPK's previous claims which were political in nature.

In his statement and interviews, the businessman rubbished RPK's claims and launched his own attack on the blogger, calling him a blackmailer who used his blog to make money off people he had dirt on.

RPK in his blog articles linked Deepak as the intermediary and bagman who helped pay off private investigator P Balasubramaniam to change his statutory declaration on the 2006 murder of Mongolian model and translator Altantuya Shaaribuu.

Yesterday: TV3 chopped interview with me: RPK