Sagar-Runi murder: Nothing new in Rab report on probe
Eight years after the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, Rapid Action Battalion could not produce any new information as the High Court wanted to know the latest update of the investigation.
Rab yesterday handed over a report regarding the inquiry into the murders of Sagar and Runi to the attorney general's office to place it before the HC.
"There is no new information. Earlier, we used to take the case docket to court. Now the High Court asked the investigation officer to submit it through an affidavit. That is why the progress report was sent to the AG office," Maj Hussain Roisul Azam Moni, deputy director of Rab's legal and media wing, told The Daily Star.
The AG office will submit the report through an affidavit to the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman today as per its earlier order, an AG office source said.
The source, however, could not disclose the content of the report.
Contacted, Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder, who is working with the HC bench concerned, told The Daily Star that he did not know about the matter.
"If we get anything from Rab, we will submit it to the High Court," he said.
On November 14 last year, the same HC bench ordered the investigation officer of the murder case to submit a report on the latest status of the investigation and on the involvement of Tanvir Rahman with the incident by March 4 this year.
On that day, the bench observed that the successes of Rab will be devalued to some extent if the elite force cannot find the motive and perpetrators behind the murders.
"It is undoubtedly a matter of regret and disappointment that the motive behind the murders has not been found, the offenders could not be identified or arrested through investigation, and they were not put on trial although a long period after the incident has passed," the HC observed.
The HC bench came up with the observation while delivering a verdict on a petition filed by accused Tanvir Rahman, who is now out on bail.
The HC also exempted Tanvir from personal appearance before the trial court in connection with the case until the investigation report is submitted to the court.
On November 11 last year, Investigation Officer Khondker Shafiqul Alam appeared before the HC bench to explain the progress of the investigation. He told the court that the investigation was going on.
Shafiqul Alam was the seventh investigator in the case since July 4, 2019.
When the court asked him to explain whether Sagar's missing laptop had been found, he replied in the negative. He submitted the four samples that Rab had sent to the USA for the DNA tests. Of the four, two didn't match with the accused.
The investigator said that the American company informed Rab that the two DNA samples found there had not been identified yet.
At least eight people, including suspects Rafiqul Islam, Bakul Miah, Masum Mintu, Kamrul Hasan alias Arun, Abu Sayeed, and two security guards of the couple's house Palash Rudra Paul and Enamul Hoque, and the couple's "family friend" Tanvir had been arrested in connection with the murder.
Later, Tanvir and Palash got out of jail on bail. The others are in jail.
Tanvir, an official of an English medium school in Dhaka, earlier submitted the petition to the HC to scrap trial proceedings against him in the case.
Sagar, news editor at private TV channel Maasranga, and his wife Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were killed in the early hours of February 11, 2012 in their rented flat in the capital's West Razabazar.
After Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police and the Detective Branch of police, Rab was tasked with the probe on April 18, 2012.
Rab and other agencies have taken more than 71 dates from the trial court concerned for completing the probe.