(The Malaysian Insider) - Two Selangor PKR state assemblymen, accused by Raja Petra Kamarudin of receiving bribes in the state’s sand-mining projects, have denied the blogger’s allegations, insisting they are innocent.

Shuhaimi Shafei (Sri Muda assemblyman) and Amiruddin Shari (Batu Caves) attacked Raja Petra today for linking Azmin Ali in the scandal, saying that the Selangor prince had confused the PKR deputy president with someone else.

“RPK might have confused Azmin Ali with Azmin Karim who is my officer who has done a lot of work for me,” Shuhaimi said at a news conference here today.

In a blog posting, Raja Petra had provided a transcript of an alleged telephone conversation between Shuhaimi and a sand contractor where there was a discussion about bribe payments between the two.

The transcript also allegedly implicated Azmin Ali as being involved in the scandal.

Azmin Karim, said Shuhaimi, was entrusted with holding RM50,000, which was lent to him by the owner of a company called Double Dignity (M) Sdn Bhd.

The owner, Adnan Abd Mokhtar, had apparently lent Azmin Karim the money to assist a friend known as “A” who needed financial support to open up a Smartreader company in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya.

“The RM50,000 was put in Azmin’s (Karim) account because till today Adnan has not met me for me to return the money to him,” said Shuhaimi.

But he did not explain why he did not just take the money from Azmin Karim and give it personally to Adnan.

Double Dignity was named by Raja Petra in his blog as having submitted a sand-mining application to mine sand in Dengkil, Selangor. The blogger had also alleged that Shuhaimi and Amiruddin were directors of the company along with Adnan.

In response, Shuhaimi said the article was “malicious”.

“I am confident he is conspiring with Barisan Nasional thugs to distract public attention from the ever-growing National Feedlot Corporation (NFCorp) scandal,” he added.