Sagar-Runi murder: Many questions unanswered

THEY were too young to die. And the journalist couple, Meherun Runi and Sagar Sarwar, did not deserve to be killed in their rented apartment in the early hours of February 11, 2012 in front of their minor and only son Megh.
Hours after the murder that sent a shockwave across the media world, the then Home Minister Shahara Khatun declared with far too much confidence that the killers would be nabbed within 48 hours. Since then two years have elapsed, the replacement of Shahara Khatun took over in the form of Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir who lost his job at the fag end of the immediate past government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and a new government under the leadership of the same premier has taken office. The mystery behind the twin murder has remained unresolved. Meanwhile, the detective police (DB) admitted its failure to make any progress in the case and surrendered it to the High Court. Following DB's failure the case was taken over by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) raising our hopes about a positive outcome. RAB, the elite crime-bursting force of the country, too has failed to unravel the mytery of the heinous murder case. Journalists have kept on demonstrating on the streets to demand that the killers are arrested and put on trial. In observing the 2nd anniversary of the murder, media organisations have vowed to continue their protest and called for a hunger strike again for March 31. This has prompted Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu to express regrets over what he said the administration's failure to make any progress in the sensational case.
The failed investigation has seen the arrest of eight people -- five of them already in police detention in the killing of physician Narayan Chandra. The three others include the journo couple's friend, Tanvir and the security guard of the apartment building called Enamul. None of the suspects has made any statement that can accuse them in the killing.
RAB has yet to admit officially any failure in the investigation, but the latest status speaks clearly that the elite force too has failed. Rab investigators now wait for the result of DNA tests being done in a US laboratory. Meanwhile, with Rab taking over the investigation, the bodies of Sagar and Runi were exhumed for new post-mortem. But there is no headway as yet.
This is not to suggest that the investigators are incompetent or are not doing their work as sincerely as they should have. At the start, police investigators blamed journo friends of the murdered couple for unwittingly destroying some key evidences of the murder. Eager to pay respect to the couple, the bodies laying in a pool of blood, the friends, most of the colleagues and journalists working in other media houses, went too close to the scene of the crimes erasing some key evidences. Police had not been totally wrong in its claim.
This, however, cannot be an excuse for the lack of progress in the investigation.
It's important to look back and reassess the statements Shahara Khatun and of the senior police officials soon after the murder. What made them so optimistic about finding out the killers within 48 hours? What was the basis of the police chief's statement within weeks of the murder that investigation had made tangible progress?
The shock caused by the tragedy has jolted the entire nation. The failure in the investigation has triggered speculations about the motive of the killings and who could be behind it. Speculations have gone to the extent that the killers are being protected by an influential quarter with political link. Was it just a murder and a part of the usual crime that is common in Bangladesh? Or was it related to anything else? Was the couple involved in any investigation which could have exposed crime and corruption at high places?
Such speculations will go on until the mystery surrounding the killings is resolved.
Inu is not holding the home ministry, but he can as he said put pressure on accelerating the investigation. Unless his expressing regrets is just another PR move to please the journalists.
 

The writer is former Bureau Chief, AP