No clue to Sagar-Runi murder in 3 years
The investigators could crack no clue to the killing of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi inside three years of the murder although the DNA profiling reports from the United States reached nearly a year ago. The Rapid Action Battalion investigators had earlier said that they were waiting for DNA reports and a private lab in the United States sent the report on March 25, 2014. Private television Maasranga Television news editor Sagar Sarwar and his wife ATN Bangla senior reporter Meherun Runi were stabbed to death in the bedroom of their rented flat at Pashchim Rajabazar in Dhaka on February 11, 2012. Both the journalists were stabbed repeatedly. Sarwar’s hands were tied round his back. The investigation agencies, especially the battalion, so far submitted five reports on the progress of the investigation indicating no clue. The battalion so far interrogated 158 people, including 27 journalists, case documents showed.
They arrested eight suspects at times but could neither identify the killers nor establish the motive. The battalion arrested Abu Sayeed, Bakul Mia Rafiqul Islam and Mintu Islam, who were earlier detained in the physician Narayan Chandra Dutta Nitai murder case. The other arrested were security guards of the house Rudra Palash and Enamul Haque alias Humayun Kabir, driver Kamrul Hasan Arun and the slain journalists’ friend Tanvir Rahman. Seven of the arrested are now in jail. Tanvir was granted bail by the High Court on December 2, 2014. The victim families have become frustrated and lost hope for justice. After visiting the crime scene, the then home minister Sahara Khatun had told reporters that the law enforcers were ordered to find out and arrest the killers in 48 hours. Just as the 48-hour timeframe ended, then inspector general of police Hassan Mahmood Khandkar had claimed that ‘substantial progress’ had been made in the investigation and assured all of positive news anytime. Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesperson Monirul Islam on February 16, 2012 had told the media that some suspects were under ‘close watch.’ The battalion was given the charge of investigation by the High Court on April 18, 2012 after the Detective Branch of police declared their failure in the investigation.
The investigation officer of the case, battalion’s senior assistant superintendent Wares Ali, filed last report on the progress in the investigation to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on February 2. In the report, the investigation officer said that they were now examining the DNA profiling reports and sent a letter asking the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for recovering the stolen laptop of the journalist couple. Metropolitan magistrate Md Yunus Khan on Monday allowed two more months for the investigation asked the investigation officer to submit the report by April 1. Wares Ali told New Age that DNA profiling reports on 21 people and evidences suggested that two males took part in the killing.
The battalion was currently looking for the duo, he said. The investigators also interrogated Rudra Palash and Humayun in custody for two days in September 2014. But the two made no confession. Investigators also recorded statements of the slain couple’s son Mahir Sarwar Megh. ‘We are frustrated and have lost the hope for getting justice,’ said Runi’s brother Nawsher Alam Roman, who filed the murder case with Sher-e-Banglanagar police station. He suspected that influential people might have been behind the killing and the investigating agencies were trying to save them. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s media adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, expressed his hope for a positive outcome in the investigation. He said that the investigation might have been delayed as the journalist couple’s murder was sensational one.
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