Maharashtra Transport Minister Anil Parab on Tuesday filed a Rs 100-crore defamation suit in the Bombay High Court against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya for making “defamatory and reckless” allegations, Bar and Bench reported.

Parab has claimed that Somaiya had in a tweet in June alleged that the transport minister was involved in construction of multiple illegal properties in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

The content of Somaiya’s tweet was reported by media outlets too, Parab said in his defamation suit.

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Parab, a Shiv Sena leader, said he had no connection with the constructions mentioned by Somaiya. The minister added that no statutory agency or authority had issued a notice to him about any scam “much less some construction carried out in Ratnagiri”, Bar and Bench reported.

In response to the tweets, Parab had sent a legal notice to Somaiya on September 14, asking him to delete the defamatory tweets and video. However, Somaiya did not reply to the notice.

Apart from Rs 100 crore sought for damage to his reputation, Parab has also demanded an unconditional apology from Somaiya and a permanent injunction from making any defamatory statements against him in the future.

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Earlier this week, Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif had also said that he would file a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against Somaiya.

This was after Somaiya alleged that Mushrif and his family had created companies that had transactions with shell companies and that the minister was involved in a Rs 127-crore money laundering scam.

On Monday, Somaiya was detained in Satara, while on his way to visit properties owned by Mushrif in the Kolhapur district. The authorities had barred him from entering the city because of security concerns as Mushrif is an MLA from the Kagal constituency in Kolhapur.