The High Court today removed the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from the investigation into the unsolved 2012 murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi. The decision came after 113 extensions were granted to RAB for submitting their probe report, prompting frustration from the courts and the victims’ families.
The court directed the home ministry to form a high-powered task force to take over the investigation, with a mandate to submit a progress report within six months. The task force may include representatives from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), according to the complainant’s lawyer, Mohammad Shishir Manir. The court set April 6, 2025, for the next hearing on the case.
During the hearing, the High Court bench, comprised of Justice Farah Mahabub and Justice Mahbubul Islam, expressed their disappointment at the long delay in resolving the case, calling it a “shocking failure” for both the victims’ families and the nation.
Sagar Sarowar, a news editor at Maasranga TV, and his wife Meherun Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were brutally murdered in their West Rajabazar apartment in Dhaka on February 11, 2012. Despite years of investigation, no progress has been made in identifying the motive or arresting the culprits, leading to widespread criticism of the investigation process.
Initially handled by Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police and later transferred to detectives, the investigation was taken over by RAB in April 2012. Despite repeated court orders and extensions, RAB failed to submit a conclusive probe report, prompting today’s decision to remove them from the case.
This marks a critical shift in the investigation, with hopes that the newly-formed task force will finally bring justice to the long-standing case.
