A Dhaka court on Sunday set April 15 for filing a probe report in the case lodged over the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, extending the deadline for the submission of the report for 116th time.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate MA Azharul Islam passed the order, allowing a time plea of the prosecution as the investigation agency聽 failed to submit the report on Sunday.
The journalist couple was brutally murdered at their rented flat in the city鈥檚 West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012, in the presence of their then four-year-old son Mahir Sarwar Megh.
Runi鈥檚 brother Nawser Alam filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
At that time, detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police was entrusted with the charge of the investigation into the murder case which was later transferred to the Rapid Action Battalion. The elite crime-busting agency has failed to submit the investigation report in court after taking time 111 times in the last 12 years.
On September 30, 2024, the High Court ordered the formation of a high-power task force through home ministry to probe the case, removing RAB from the charge.
The government on October 23, 2024, formed a four-member task force to investigate the double murder. The task force was formed through a notification from home ministry. The notification asked the task force to submit its probe findings in six months.
The police bureau of investigation was named the taskforce convener though the notice did not reveal the names of other members.
The task force also includes one representative not below the rank of additional deputy inspector general of police headquarters, one representative of the same rank of the criminal investigation department and one representative of the rank of RAB director.
The High Court on October 16, 2024, released the full text of its September 30 order that had directed to shift the authority of probing the Sarwar-Runi murder case from the RAB to a high-powered task force to be formed by home ministry.