A Dhaka court today accepted a Tk 100 crore defamation case against Shajahan Khan, former shipping minister.

Accepting the case filed by road safety campaigner Ilias Kanchan yesterday, Dhaka's First Joint District Judge Utpal Bhattcherjee summoned Shajahan and sought his explanation by himself or through his lawyer within March 22. 

In his complaint, Ilias stated that Shajahan, at a programme in Narayanganj on December 8 last year, said Ilias had accumulated a huge amount of wealth illegally.

According to the case statement, Shajahan had said that he would make public how much money Ilias has received and for what purposes, and how much he took for himself in the name of his son and daughter-in-law.

Shajahan's comments at the time were published in different media, it said.

Such comments damaged Ilias' reputation nationally and internationally, he said.

On December 11, he had urged Shajahan to withdraw his comment, but he did not do so, the case statement added.