A potentially significant new lead has emerged in the long-stalled investigation into the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi, with the International Crimes Tribunal’s chief prosecutor saying call records have revealed a link between the 2012 killings and a well-known figure from the cultural arena.
Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam said on Sunday that the information surfaced unexpectedly while the tribunal’s investigation agency was examining call detail records, or CDRs, in an unrelated case.
He declined to identify the cultural figure, saying the information was still being scrutinized and the person was under observation.
The development comes more than 14 years after Sagar and Runi were murdered at their West Rajabazar home in Dhaka, with successive investigating agencies failing to resolve one of the country’s most sensational murder cases.
The investigation report has already been deferred 129 times.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), which is now investigating the case, again failed to submit its report on August 27, prompting a Dhaka court to set September 30 as the new deadline.
“Our investigation agency is not conducting the investigation into Sagar-Runi. This is being done by another organisation, PBI,” Aminul told reporters at the tribunal office.
“However, we may get clues while investigating a case,” he said.
“We also got clues about Sagar-Runi. I cannot reveal their names and identities. However, I can say this much: there is a connection between Sagar-Runi and a cultural figure.”
He said investigators were verifying the information and keeping the person concerned under surveillance.
“If anything more authentic is found after further investigation, I will provide the information to the concerned officer of PBI,” he added.
Aminul said the clue was uncovered during a review of CDRs in an investigation unrelated to the journalist couple’s murders.
He compared the discovery to information the tribunal’s investigators had come across concerning former major Muzaffar Hossain while investigating another case.
However, the chief prosecutor made clear that the Sagar-Runi murder case itself does not fall within the jurisdiction of the International Crimes Tribunal.
He described it as an individual murder rather than a widespread or systematic crime and said any trial would therefore take place before the regular sessions court.
Son, case plaintiff meet chief prosecutor
Hours after the disclosure, the murdered couple’s only child, Mahir Sarwar Megh, went to the tribunal along with his maternal uncle and the plaintiff in the case, Nowsher Ali Roman.
They met Aminul and Prosecutor Tanvir Joha at the chief prosecutor’s office on Sunday afternoon.
Roman proposed taking steps to prevent suspects in the case from leaving the country and asked about filing an application with the tribunal.
The chief prosecutor told them that they could submit a complaint but said its maintainability under the tribunal’s legal jurisdiction would first have to be considered.
The family’s swift move to meet prosecutors underscored the significance they attached to the new information after more than a decade of delays and repeated investigative setbacks.
129 deadlines, still no report
Sagar, then news editor at Maasranga Television, and Runi, a senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were found murdered at their rented home in West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012.
Runi’s brother Roman subsequently filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
The investigation changed hands several times.
Detective Branch police initially investigated the case before it was transferred to the Rapid Action Battalion, which investigated it for years without reaching a conclusion.
The PBI is now investigating the killings under a high-level task force formed following a court order.
Yet the case has remained unresolved, with the deadline for submission of the investigation report deferred 129 times.
The latest deadline passed on August 27 without a report, and Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Ariful Islam subsequently fixed September 30 for its submission.
Against that backdrop, the disclosure of a previously unknown CDR link represents a fresh line of inquiry in a case that has remained without a definitive account of who killed the two journalists and why.
Whether the newly discovered information ultimately provides the breakthrough investigators have failed to find for more than 14 years will now depend on its verification, and whether it can be connected to evidence in the murder investigation.