Sagar Runi murder: Rab removed from probe, HC asks govt to form high-level committee

The High Court today removed Rapid Action Battalion Rapid from the investigation into the murder of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi in 2012, and directed the home ministry to form a high-powered task force to investigate the case.

The task force was ordered to submit the investigation report to the HC in six months.

The court fixed April 6, 2025, for holding hearing on the matter.

The High Court bench of Justice Farah Mahabub and Justice Mahbubul Islam passed the order following an application by the government seeking its order on authorities concerned to remove Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from the investigation into the murder case.

Not completing the investigation into the Sagar Runi murder case was shocking not only for the family of the victims but also for the nation as a whole, the HC bench said during the hearing.

Representatives of Police Bureau of Investigation and Criminal Investigation Department may be part of the task force, Mohammad Shishir Manir, a lawyer for the complainant of the case, told The Daily Star.

Sagar Sarowar, news editor of private TV station Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter of another channel ATN Bangla, had been killed at their rented flat in the capital's West Rajabazar on February 11 in 2012. Their only son Mahir Sarowar Megh, then 5, was home at that time.

After investigation by Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police and detectives, the Rapid Action Battalion started a further probe on April 18, 2012.

On September 9, a Dhaka court asked RAB to submit by October 15 the probe report of a case filed over the murders. This is the 113th extension of the deadline for probe report submission.

Earlier, two separate courts have expressed dissatisfaction over the probe, and the investigators' failure to unearth the motive behind the murders and arrest the real culprits.