Sagar Runi Murder: 12 years of frustration

Justice remains a far cry for the families of slain journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi 12 years on.

Despite the court repeatedly setting dates for the investigation officer to submit the probe report in the sensational double-murder case, each instance ends in disappointment as the officer fails to meet the deadline.

This frustrating cycle has been going on for the last 12 years, with the investigators seeking a staggering 107 time extensions to submit the probe report.

The victims' families expressed their frustration, citing it as 12 years of failure on the part of the Rapid Action Battalion.

Last week, Law Minister Anisul Huq told the parliament that it is not possible to give a timeframe for the completion of the investigation into the murder of the journalist couple.

Earlier on February 2, Huq said that if the investigation needs 50 years to find the killers of Sagar-Runi, then so be it.

Sagar, who was the news editor at Maasranga Television, and his wife Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were killed in the early hours of February 11, 2012, in their rented flat in the capital's West Razabazar.

The couple's only child Mahir Sarowar Megh, only five at the time, was in the flat. Megh, who is now 17, is still in the dark over his parents' gruesome death.

Runi's brother Nowsher Alam Roman, also the plaintiff of the case, told The Daily Star that such comments from the top ministers don't surprise them anymore.

"Since the beginning, we have been getting such statements from the ministers. It's not the first time. The law minister's statement is just an addition to those statements."

The statements suggest that the government is not interested in serving justice "for some reasons".

"It was still okay if the investigation officer had said such a thing. But when a top minister of the government says this, where can we go for justice? Such statement makes the perception strong that some influential quarter might have been behind their murder," he said.

Since April 18, 2012, Rab has sought deferral of the deadline to submit its findings to courts 105 times and the two previous agencies did it twice. In total, the deadline has been put off 107 times.

But right after the murder, Sahara Khatun, the home minister at the time, vowed to catch the killers within 48 hours. That 48 hours have now rolled into about 1,05,192 hours, but the promise remains unfulfilled.

The family members now express doubts about the sincerity and willingness of the government to solve the murder mystery.

Runi's mother Nur Nahar Mirza died two years back without seeing justice for her daughter and son-in-law.

About the investigation, Roman said that the Rab often arranges press conferences for even trivial matters like seizures of small amounts of cannabis. But in this case, they kept mum.

"At the very beginning, they [Rab] were interested in the case when they were not assigned. But after they were handed over the investigation, they failed to do anything for the last 12 years," Roman said.

Contacted, Rab's spokesperson Khandaker Al Moin said that if the victim families are not satisfied with Rab's investigation, they can apply to the court to change the investigation agency.

About the investigation, Moin said: "We are working to unearth two specific things: the killers and the motive behind the killing. But so far, we didn't get anything conclusive."

After the case was filed on February 12, 2012, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station was tasked with the investigation. After three days, the case was handed over to the Detective Branch of police. After their failure, the case was transferred to the Rab on April 18, 2012.

Among the eight arrestees in the case, two got bail. The rest are behind the bar.

Rab Additional SP Khandaker Md Shafiqul Alam is the seventh investigation officer in the case. He was given the job on July 7, 2019.

On October 7, 2020, he submitted a progress report into the double murder.

In the progress report, he said evidence seized from the crime scene was sent to the Independent Forensic Service (IFS) in the US for DNA tests. The IFS identified the DNA of two unidentified men. Later, another US DNA lab, Parabon Snapshot, was communicated for identifying the two.

The test results failed to come up with anything concrete, according to Rab officials.

A Dhaka court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case on February 27.