Nantha was released on Tuesday after being remanded by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for four days.

He was investigated for soliciting and receiving bribes from a foreign worker agent, purportedly in exchange for not publishing two articles exposing a foreign worker syndicate.

In his account of the events leading up to his arrest last Friday, Nantha denied MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki’s claim that he had asked a foreign worker agent for a RM100,000 bribe, which was later negotiated down to RM20,000.

In a Malaysiakini report, he said one of the Pakistani agents mentioned in an article he wrote contacted him to deny his involvement in a foreign worker syndicate.

He said he later met the two Pakistani agents mentioned in the article and was offered RM50,000 to “settle” the matter, which he refused.

Nantha said he immediately met the state immigration director to discuss the matter, but the director was unable to take action due to a lack of evidence.

He claimed the director asked him to engage with the agents again to help gather stronger evidence, and he agreed to act as an “undercover agent”.

He said he did not inform his superiors in Malaysiakini about the arrangement as he was worried they might stop him from proceeding because of the risks involved.

“I did this because I believe that as an investigative journalist, one must be prepared to take certain actions to uncover the truth. Previously, there were instances where editors rejected my suggestions, deeming them too risky,” he said.

Nantha said the same Pakistani agent mentioned in the article contacted him last Thursday asking to meet again, and they agreed to do so at a hotel in Shah Alam the next day.

He said he informed the state immigration director of the meeting, and that he would hand over any evidence to him.

“I also told him that if I were accused of anything, he needed to back me up. He assured me that he would,” he said.

Nantha said he chose to meet the agent at the hotel as he was covering a news assignment involving Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari at the same hotel.

He also said the hotel is an open area with multiple CCTV cameras which could provide crucial evidence if the immigration department decides to take action against the agents.

He said that when he met the agent, he was asked to delete the articles about him. Nantha, who does not have authority to delete articles published by Malaysiakini, refused.

He said he then pretended to be interested in “working together” with the agent.

“I tried to coax him to give me something that I could hand over as evidence. Instead, he handed me an envelope, which I believed contained money, as a bribe,” he said.

“Surprised, I took it either way as evidence to be handed to the state immigration director. Within seconds, more than a dozen MACC officers confronted me.”

He said that since writing the first article on the syndicate on Feb 19, he had never contacted any agent to ask for bribes.

If he had wanted to profit from the article, he would have contacted the “mastermind” behind the syndicate before the initial story was published to ask for a hefty sum, he said.

He also pointed out that he chose to meet the agent at a hotel filled with surveillance cameras, on a day when the prime minister was holding an event there.

“If I had any intention of accepting a bribe, I would not have selected such a high-profile location,” he said.

In an editor’s note in the article, Malaysiakini described Nantha as an outstanding journalist whose “fearless reporting” on syndicates linked to foreign workers has been instrumental in exposing critical issues.

Malaysiakini also said it has set up an independent panel of experts to conduct its own investigation into the matter. Malaysiakini has suspended Nantha with full benefits pending the independent panel’s findings.