The government pledged to arrest the killers of journalist couple Sagar-Runi in 48 hours but 48 months have elapsed and they are still at large.

The proceedings of the case linked to the murders could not begin yet as successive investigators failed to identify anyone responsible for the killing, let alone make any arrest.

The Rapid Action Battalion that took over the charge of the investigation from the Detective Branch has not made any visible progress. 

It used to apprise the court of the probe updates but during the last three hearings it did not do so saying that law enforcers needed more time to delve deeply into the case, court sources said.

The next hearing date set by the court is February 28.

With more and more time going by, the victims' families hope for justice is fading. 

"We are very much disappointed. We think Rab is not investigating the case,” Runi's younger brother Nowsher Alam Roman said yesterday.

Law enforcers stopped communicating the probe updates to the families, he said, adding that the fourth investigation officer who took the charge in August last year met him for the first time on Tuesday.  

Mufti Mahmud Khan, director of Rab's legal and media wing, said the elite force was using all strategies to find out information about the sensational murders.

“It is not that all cases can be solved in quickest time; sometimes, some sensational cases take a little bit more time,” he said.

Meherun Runi, senior reporter of private TV channel ATN Bangla, and her husband Sagar Sarowar, news editor of another TV station Maasranga, were murdered in the bedroom of their West Rajabazar apartment in the capital on February 11, 2012.

The couple's only son Mahir Sarowar Megh, who was only five at the time, was in the apartment when the murder took place.

After Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police and detectives, Rab has been probing the incident since April 2012.

The victims' families and people of all walks of life, including the journalist community, expressed anger and frustration over the sluggish investigation.

Rab on March 25, 2014 received the results of 21 DNA samples from evidence in the crime scene and eight suspects but that did not help make any breakthrough in the probe.