The High Court today granted an extension of six more months to the government-formed taskforce to conclude the investigation into the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi and submit the final report to the court.
The bench comprising Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mohammad Razi passed the order after Additional Attorney General Md Arshadur Rauf requested nine more months to complete the probe. He informed the court that the delay was partly due to frequent changes and transfers of officials involved in the investigation over the years, necessitating more time.
Previously, on September 30 last year, the High Court had directed the home ministry to reassign the case from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to a newly-formed high-powered taskforce. This taskforce was to be composed of experienced members from various agencies and was mandated to submit its investigation report within six months, without fail.
The directive followed a government petition filed on September 29, 2023, seeking to revise an earlier HC order issued on April 18, 2012, which had transferred the case from the Detective Branch to RAB.
Since then, RAB had been handling the investigation but failed to complete it, instead requesting time extensions from the trial court on 118 occasions.
The initial six-month deadline set by the court expired on March 31, 2025.
On April 20, Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, representing the family of Sagar and Runi, brought the matter to the attention of the HC bench led by Justice Fatema Najib, seeking further directions.
When contacted, Md Mustafa Kamal, Additional Inspector General of Police and head of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), who currently leads the taskforce, told The Daily Star that although the investigation is ongoing, the killers have yet to be identified.
Sagar Sarwar, the news editor at Maasranga Television, and his wife Meherun Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were murdered in their rented West Rajabazar apartment on February 11, 2012. Their five-year-old son, Mahir Sarowar Megh, was present at home during the incident.
The murder case was initially filed by Runi’s brother, Nawsher Alam Roman, at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station without naming any suspects. After initial probes by police and detectives, the case was handed over to RAB in April 2012.
In response to recent media reports alleging that several Detective Branch files related to the murder were destroyed in a fire, the Police Bureau of Investigation issued a statement today clarifying that there was no reference to any such incident in the additional attorney general’s latest submission to the court.
