POBNEWS24, Dhaka Jan 27, 2025 : A Dhaka court has set March 2 as the date for submitting the investigation report in the controversial murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi. The investigation agency has exceeded the deadline for submitting the report for the 115th time.
The date for submitting the investigation report in the case was set on Monday. As the investigation agency did not submit the report on that day, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate GM Farhan Ishtiaq ordered a new date for submitting the report.
On February 11, 2012, Sagar Sarwar, news editor of Maasranga Television, and Meherun Runi, senior reporter of ATN Bangla, were killed. Later, Runi’s brother, Nowsher Alam Roman, filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
The High Court has ordered the investigation into the murder of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi by a high-powered task force formed by the Home Ministry, replacing the responsibility of investigating the murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi from the RAB on September 30. The High Court gave this order on the state’s application for modification of the writ order filed for investigation into the much-discussed Sagar Runi murder case.
During the hearing on the matter, the High Court said, “I hope justice will be ensured this time and the six months given for investigation this time mean six months.” The High Court has fixed April 6 for the next order in this regard.
On February 11, 2012, journalist couple Sagar and Runi were murdered in a rented house in the capital’s West Rajabazar. Their four-and-a-half-year-old son, Mahir Sarwar Megh, was at home at the time of the incident.
Runi’s brother Nausher Alam filed a case at the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station regarding this brutal murder. Initially, the police of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station were investigating the case. Later, the investigation of the case was handed over to the Intelligence Department of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police. Later, RAB was given the responsibility of the investigation.
Supreme Court lawyer Manjil Morshed filed a writ in the High Court for a proper investigation of this murder case.
As there was no progress in the investigation of the case even after two months of the incident, he applied to the court to change the investigation officer of the case. Even though a decade has passed, the investigation officer has not been able to submit any significant report on the investigation of the case. So far, it has taken 115 times to submit the investigation report.
After this murder, the then Home Minister had set a deadline that the murderers would be caught within 48 hours. That was just words. Various journalist organizations including DUJ, BFUJ, DRU have been demanding an investigation report on the murder of Sagar Runi and exemplary punishment for those involved.
RAB has been investigating this case and sent DNA samples of 25 people, including the eight arrested accused, the deceased Sagar-Runi and their relatives, to the United States for testing. After receiving the test reports from the US laboratory, the crime scene report was reviewed and a complete DNA profile of the two was obtained. However, the suspected killer was not identified in it, sources said.
Chief Justice Dr. Syed Refaat Ahmed, in his address to judges across the country on September 21, said, “We have seen that more than a hundred times have already been taken to submit the investigation report on the sensational Sagar-Runi murder. This cannot be desirable at all. If the investigation takes more than a year, the trial of that case becomes very difficult. Because many witnesses and evidence of the case are lost due to the passage of time.”
After a decade, Supreme Court lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir has been appointed for the plaintiff in the Sagar-Runi murder case. Nowsher Roman, brother of the plaintiff in the case, informed reporters about the appointment of the lawyer.
