Sagar-Runi murder: Probe report delayed for 129th time

The investigation report in the high-profile murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi was not submitted to court on Thursday (August 27), pushing the deadline back for the 129th time.

A Dhaka court fixed September 30 as the new date for submission after the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), which is investigating the case, failed to file the report.

The report was scheduled to be submitted before Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam’s court today.

Rafiqul Islam, an inspector with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police prosecution division, confirmed the development.

Sagar Sarowar, news editor of Maasranga Television, and his wife Meherun Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were found dead at their rented apartment in the capital's West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012.

Following the killings, Runi’s brother Nawser Alam filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station. The investigation initially began with the local police before being transferred to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch and later to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

After years without a breakthrough, the PBI was assigned the investigation. The agency took over the case more than a decade after the murders and received the case documents from RAB in November last year.

However, the investigation report has yet to be submitted.

With Thursday’s deadline missed, the court’s latest order has further prolonged the wait for the investigation to conclude and for the trial proceedings in the long-running case to begin.