Staff Correspondent:

A Dhaka court on Tuesday set August 11 for filing the probe report in the sensational Murder case of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, extending the deadline for the 119th time.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Minhazul Islam passed the order, allowing a time plea of the prosecution as the investigation agency failed to submit the report on Tuesday.

The journalist couple was brutally murdered at their rented flat in the city’s West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012, in the presence of their then four-year-old son Mahir Sarwar Megh. Runi’s brother Nawser Alam filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.

At that time, the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) was entrusted with the charge of the investigation into the murder case, which was later transferred to the Rapid Action Battalion RAB. The elite force failed to submit the investigation report even after taking time 111 times over the past 12 years.

On September 30, 2024, the High Court ordered the formation of a high-power task force through the Ministry of Home Affairs 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 the Ministry of Home Affairs. The task force was asked to submit its probe findings within six months.

The PBI was named the taskforce convener, though the notice did not reveal the names of the other members.

The task force also includes one representative not below the rank of Additional Deputy Inspector General or DIG of Police Headquarters, one representative of the same rank of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and one 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 of the authority of probing the journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Nahar Runi murder case from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to a high-powered task force to be formed by the Home Ministry.