Written complaint filed with ICT seeking justice for Sagar-Runi murder
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The family of journalist Sagar Sarwar has filed a written complaint with the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) seeking justice for the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi.
The complaint was submitted to International Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Aminul Islam on Sunday morning by Nowsher Roman, the complainant in the murder case.
On February 11, 2012, Sagar Sarwar, news editor of Maasranga Television, and Meherun Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were murdered. Following the incident, Runi’s brother Nowsher Alam Roman filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
Initially, an assistant sub inspector (SI) of the police station was appointed as the investigation officer. Four days later, the investigation of the high-profile murder case was handed over to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch (DB).
The DB failed to uncover the mystery despite investigating the case for more than two months. Later, following a High Court directive, the investigation was handed over to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on April 18 of the same year.
On September 30, 2024, the High Court ordered the formation of a high-powered task force comprising experienced investigation officers from different law enforcement agencies to investigate the murder case of Sagar and Runi.
The court also ordered that a report be submitted within six months after completing the investigation. Following the court order, the Public Security Division of the Home Ministry issued a gazette notification on October 17 of that year forming the task force.
A four-member high level task force was formed with the head of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) as its convener.
Most recently, on October 23 last year, the High Court granted another six months to complete the investigation.
However, the investigation could not be completed even after that. The submission of the investigation report in the case has now been deferred 129 times. The court has set September 30 as the new date for submitting the investigation report in the case filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
Rafiqul Islam, Bakul Mia, Masum Mintu, Kamrul Islam alias Arun, Abu Sayeed, two security guards at Sagar and Runi’s home, Palash Rudra Pal and Enayet Ahmed, and their “friend” Tanvir Rahman Khan have been arrested in the case.
Among them, Tanvir is out on bail while Palash went into hiding after securing bail. The others remain in jail.
