Sagar-Runi murder probe report deferred 131 times in 15 years; 132nd date set for November 5

Nearly 15 years have passed since journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi were murdered. In all this time, the investigation report in the case has not been submitted even once. Although the court fixed dates 131 times, the officials concerned could not finish the investigation. November 5 has now been set for the 132nd submission date.

Sagar's mother, 74-year-old Saleha Monir, breaks down in tears when she recalls losing her son and daughter-in-law. Her question: why has it not been possible to unravel the mystery of this murder even after so many years?

Saleha Monir said, 'Which mother would not want justice for her child's murder? The incident was quite clear. So many years have passed, yet no one could find out anything.' Speaking by phone, she said in a tearful voice, 'My only hope is that I may live to see the trial.'

Saleha Monir said she had seen on television that the task force had been given six more months to finish the investigation, but no one from the task force had contacted her. Earlier, PBI officials had contacted her, she said.

Meherun Runi's brother and the case's plaintiff, Nowsher Alam Roman, has questioned the progress of the long investigation, calling the repeated requests for time frustrating. Roman said, 'The task force's repeated applications for six months at a time are nothing but a strategy to delay the investigation. It proves they have made no progress.'

He views a recent High Court decision positively, however. Under that decision, International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) prosecutor Tanvir Hasan Zoha and the head of the task force have been summoned. Roman believes effective coordination between the ICT prosecutor and the investigating agency is essential, and that those concerned must be accountable for how far the investigation has advanced based on the information held by the prosecutor.

Sagar Sarowar was news editor of Maasranga Television. His wife Meherun Runi was a senior reporter at ATN Bangla. They were murdered in their rented home in West Rajabazar in the capital at dawn on February 11, 2012. Their only child, Mahir Sarowar Megh, was at home at the time of the murders; he was only five years old.

Eight people have been arrested in the case: Kamrul Islam alias Arun, Abu Saeed, Rafiqul Islam, Bakul Mia, Masum Mintu, Palash Rudra Pal, Anamul Haque alias Humayun Kabir and Tanvir Rahman Khan. Of them, Tanvir and Mintu are currently on bail, Palash is absconding, and the other accused are in jail.

A police officer said Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam on September 30 set November 5 for submission of the investigation report.

The investigating agency has changed three times. After the case was filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police station on February 12, 2012, that station's police first received the investigation. Three days later, on February 16, the case was transferred to the Detective Branch (DB), which investigated until April 18 that year.

In April 2012 the investigation was handed to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), which investigated the case until November 3, 2024; the force is now named the Special Response Battalion (SRB). On the High Court's directive, a four-member task force was formed on October 23, 2024 to investigate the case, with the chief of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) as its convener. The PBI took charge of the investigation on November 4 that year.

On October 19, the task force submitted a 27-page report on the investigation's progress to the Registrar General of the Supreme Court. The report, signed by PBI additional superintendent of police and investigation officer Azizul Haque, said previous investigators had recorded statements of 167 witnesses, and that since the task force took over, 90 more people have been questioned, with statements of 24 of them recorded.

The report also mentioned that digital evidence and information in the case relating to former army officer Ziaul Ahsan and a cultural personality are preserved at the International Crimes Tribunal. Letters were sent to the tribunal's chief prosecutor Aminul Islam and prosecutor Tanvir Hasan Zoha requesting that the evidence and information be handed over for the investigation, but they had not been received by the time the report was submitted.

Changes of investigating agency over a long period, repeated extensions of time and fresh efforts to collect evidence — altogether, the investigation of the case is still not finished. As a result, there is no answer to the question of when the Sagar-Runi murder trial will begin. On one side, two families wait for justice; on the other, Saleha Monir, bent under the weight of age, is running out of time, and her plea to live to see her son's killers tried remains unfulfilled.