The submission of the investigation report in the sensational murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Mehrun Runi was postponed once again, marking the 125th delay in filing the report.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam has now fixed May 7 as the next date for submission.
The investigating officer has provided explanations for the repeated delays. On February 9, the court had asked the officer to justify the failure to submit the report. The officer, Additional Superintendent of Police Md. Azizul Haque of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), appeared in court in person and submitted a two-page written explanation.
He told the court that the task force formed to probe the case includes several members in addition to him, which has caused some delay. The report will be submitted on the next scheduled date, he added.
Sagar, News Editor of Masranga Television, and Runi, senior reporter of ATN Bangla, were killed on February 11, 2012. Runi’s brother, Nowshar Alam Roman, filed the murder case at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
The accused in the case are Rafiqul Islam, Bakul Mia, Masum Mintu, Kamrul Islam alias Arun, Abu Saeed, the couple’s two home security guards Palash Rudra Pal and Enayet Ahmed, and their ‘friend’ Tanvir Rahman Khan. Among them, Tanvir is out on bail, while Palash Rudra Pal absconded after being granted bail. The remaining accused are in jail.
Initially, the investigation was handled by a sub-inspector of the same police station. Four days later, the probe was handed over to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DB), which failed to solve the case in over two months. Following a High Court directive, the investigation was transferred to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on April 18, 2012.
On September 30 last year, the High Court withdrew RAB from the case and formed a high-powered task force comprising experienced investigators from various agencies, giving them six months to complete the probe. On October 17, the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Public Security Division officially formed the task force headed by the PBI chief, with four members working under it.