Rab asked to probe

Frustrated over the Detective Branch's failure in identifying the killer(s) of journalist couple Sagar and Runi, the High Court yesterday ordered to shift the case to Rapid Action Battalion (Rab).
The court, during hearing a rule, directed the inspector general of police to instantly comply with the order.
A highly experienced and competent Rab official, not below the rank of assistant superintendent of police, will conduct the investigation now and submit a report as soon as possible, the HC said, adding that the order came into effect from the date.
Sagar Sarowar, news editor of private TV station Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, a senior reporter of another TV channel ATN Bangla, were killed in the small hours on February 11 at their rented apartment in the capital's West Razabazar.
The next day, Nawsher Alam Roman, younger brother of Runi, filed a murder case with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station without accusing anyone in particular.
On February 28, the HC issued a rule upon the government to explain why it should not be directed to find out the motive behind the killing and arrest the killers.
The Detective Branch (DB) of police failed to unearth anything fruitful in the case till date and this had disappointed everybody, the HC said yesterday, after two DB officials expressed their failure to unravel anything.
In response, Deputy Commissioner of DB Monirul Islam and its Inspector Rabiul Alam, who had been investigating the case, told the court that detectives tried their best to find out the motive of the killing and arrest the killer(s).
They appeared before the court in the morning responding to summons issued by the court the previous day. They submitted the records and papers of the case to the court during the hearing that began around 11:00am.
The HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim yesterday advised that Rab uses the latest technology and gives all-out effort during the probe.
It also ordered the home secretary to set up a committee headed by an official not below the rank of deputy inspector general of police to monitor the progress of the Rab investigation.
The committee would monitor the investigation without any interference and take advice time to time from senior journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, academicians and NGOs and other agencies, said the HC.
The court also asked the home secretary to form another committee headed by an official not below the rank of joint secretary to probe whether there had been any negligence from Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police in preserving evidence of the killing.
This committee will submit a report in 30 days, the HC directed.
The directives came following the hearing of arguments from Manzill Murshid, counsel for writ petitioner, and Deputy Attorney General ABM Altaf Hossain, and soliciting opinions from a section of lawyers and journalists present in the court.
During the hearing Justice Manik told the DB officials that they (judges) went through the records and papers and found zero progress in finding out the motive of the killing.
“We are very much disappointed. If you can't find out any lead to the incident, what message does it bring to the nation?” he said, adding that the journalists, in comparison, work with life for the nation.
At that point, Justice Selim asked the DB officials whether they were cross with lawyers and journalists as law enforcers had apparently been negligent about the murders of lawyers and journalists.
In response, DB Deputy Commissioner Monirul Islam said they tried to arrest the killer(s) instantly whenever a murder took place.
Counsel Manzill Murshid told the court that had the DB officials recovered the laptop and the cell phone of Sagar and Runi using satellite technology with assistance of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a US intelligence agency, clues of the killing could have been found out.
He said the people do not believe that DB police could not find any lead interrogating the security guard.
Justice Manik then asked the DB officials if they had used satellite technology during the investigation.
DC Monirul replied they had informally talked with FBI working in Bangladesh, but they (FBI) had no such technology to find out the missing laptop and cellphone of the murdered couple.