A Malaysian man and four foreigners - two of them women - pleaded not guilty in separate Johor Bahru Sessions Courts today to trafficking six women of Indian nationality for sexual exploitation.

Bala Muraly Supermaniam, 46, a manager of a plastic manufacturing factory, and the four other accused - Sahayaraj Raju, 41, Thiruneelakandan Kasinathan, 39, Nithyarettamary Yesurajan, 39, and Karpagavali Jeyakumar, 24 - made the plea after the charge was read out to them in Tamil by a court interpreter.