THE failure of the law enforcement agency investigating the murder of the journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi and the agency鈥檚 having missed the report submission deadline for the 108th time create grounds to question the agency鈥檚 sincerity. A Dhaka magistrates court on May 16 extended the deadline for investigation report submission as the Rapid Action Battalion failed to complete the task in more than a decade. The couple were found dead in their flat on February 11, 2012, at Pashchim Rajabazar in the capital. The investigation changed hands twice since the murders. The Detective Branch stepped in after the police had worked for a couple of days. The Rapid Action Battalion then took over in April 2012. At least on two earlier occasions, the court expressed dissatisfaction about the agency鈥檚 failure to complete the investigation. In November 2019, in expressing disappointment about the failure, the High Court observed that such a delay may tarnish the image of the elite force. The force seems unconcerned and insists that it is following court instructions, but it could not give any specific time for investigation completion.
Immediately after the murder, the then home minister promised that the killers would be brought to justice in 48 hours. Since 2015, when the US Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed the presence of two individuals at the crime scene, the inquiry has stalled. In February, the comment of the law minister seemed to justify the delay when he said that if the investigation needs 50 years to find the killers, it will have to be given 50 years. There are instances when the assigned battalion officer submitted neither the report nor a time petition in court on submission dates. Investigation officers鈥� responses to media queries, meanwhile, remained generic and vague 鈥� 鈥榤aking significant progress鈥� to 鈥榗ase is under investigation鈥� 鈥� creating room for wild speculations. There are speculations whether the unexplained and unjustifiable delay in submitting the report is only the consequence of the procedural weakness of the agencies or it is intentional to save the skin of any vested quarters involved in the murder. The journalist couple murder case, however, is not the only case of violence against journalists that remains unresolved. Rights organisation Odhikar says that in 2009鈥�2020, at least 15 journalists were presumably targeted for their role as journalists and killed, but none has so been held to account.
The demand of the victim family and journalists that the failure of the agency should be investigated to see whether the delay in submitting the report is merely the consequence of procedural weakness or it is intentional to protect interests of any vested quarters involved is more than justified. The government should, therefore, consider the demand for a credible investigation into the delay in submitting the report on Sagar-Runi murder case and other similar cases.
