Rab clueless as DNA doesn't match suspects'
Rab has become utterly clueless after the DNA profiles examined in two US laboratories did not match those of the initial suspects in journalist couple Sagar-Runi murder case.
Lt Col Ziaul Ahsan, director of the Intelligence Wing of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), said they would now have to find a new lead and that they were yet to determine the identity and number of killer(s), and the motive.
“The laboratories found DNA profiles of six to seven persons from the evidence collected from the crime scene, victims' bodies and their clothes.
“Later biometric samples of 13 people, including six suspects of Dr Nitai murder, were sent to the labs but none matched the profiles,†he said.
Earlier, Rab claimed that the killers of Dr Narayan Chandra Dutta Nitai, who was killed in his Mohakhali house on August 23, 2012, had killed the couple.
Sagar Sarowar, news editor of Maasranga television, and Meherun Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were killed in the small hours of February 11 last year at their flat in the capital's West Razabazar.
Now 11 months into the killing, the investigators, frustrated as the victims' families, relatives and colleagues, are still looking for a prospective lead, although the home minister on October 8 last year claimed to have identified seven suspects.
“It is true that the labs found DNA profiles of seven persons. But it does not necessarily mean that those will be of the killer(s). They might have been of those who rushed to the spot and contaminated the crime scene,†said Ziaul.
He said it was scientifically proven that the suspects in Dr Nitai killing were not involved in the double murder.
On their next step, Ziaul said, “We are now thinking of sending biometric samples of other suspects to the US labs for DNA test.†He declined to elaborate further.
Rab was given the charge of investigating the case on April 18, 2012, after it vented frustration over the Detective Branch of Police's failure in identifying the killer(s).
Afterwards, Rab sent a knife, a kitchen knife, the victims' bloodstained clothes and their hair to two US labs.
They had also shown six alleged killers of Dr Nitai arrested in the double murder case and rounded up Tanvir Rahman, a schoolteacher and Runi's friend, in this connection.
Besides, Humayun alias Enamul, security guard of the building where Sagar and Runi used to live with their only son, was made the prime suspect as he has been absconding. The home ministry announced a bounty of Tk 10 lakh on him.
Earlier, detectives detained some thieves and two security guards of the building in connection with the murder. But they were let go after their DNA profiles did not match the ones collected from the crime scene.
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