Shipping Minister grilled

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on Sunday took statement of Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan in connection with a 7-acre land in the city, allocated for journalists during the 2001-2006 regime. ACC deputy director Jatan Kumar Roy quizzed Shajahan Khan for an hour from 11am at the ACC headquarters in Segunbagicha. Emerging from the ACC head office Shajahan Khan told reporters that he was interrogated as a witness, not an accused. ‘I came to the ACC to give my statement for the sake of its investigation,’ he added. Shajahan said the National Housing Authority had allocated plots to journalists during then BNP-led 4-party alliance regime ‘violating’ the government rules. On March 6, 2014, the ACC filed a case against four people, including former State Minister for Housing and Public Works Alamgir Kabir, for allegedly allocating plots for journos violating rules that caused the government a loss of Tk 150 million. Shajahan Khan was the president of ‘Jhilmil Cooperative Limited’, which earlier took the land on lease from the government, but later the same piece of land was leased out to Dhaka Journalists Cooperative Limited, according to a news agency.