A Dhaka court today extended till January 27, 2025 the deadline for submitting the probe report of a case filed over murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi in February 2012.

This is the 115th extension of the deadline for probe report submission.

On September 30, the High Court expressed grave concern over the Rapid Action Battalion's failure to resolve the case, which has remained unresolved for 12 years.

"The prolonged investigation delay is both unfortunate and shocking, affecting not only their family but the nation as a whole," remarked the bench of Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice Muhammad Mahbub Ul Islam during a recent hearing.

In response to a petition, the court mandated the home ministry to transfer the case from Rab to a high-powered taskforce comprising experienced personnel from various agencies.

This task force is to complete the investigation and submit a report to the HC within six months.

The HC set April 6, 2025, for further hearings on the matter. This directive followed a petition filed by the government on September 29, seeking to modify a previous HC order from April 18, 2012, which had assigned the case to Rab from the police's detective branch.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sharifur Rahman passed the order as Investigation Officer Md Azizul Haque, also an Additional Superintendent of Police at Police Bureau of Investigation (PIB), failed to submit the report today, said a court police.

Court sources said PIB took over the charge of investigation into the case on November 4.

On November 18, another Dhaka court asked PIB to submit the investigation report by today.

Sagar, news editor at private TV channel Maasranga, and his wife Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were killed in the early hours of February 11, 2012, in their rented flat in the capital's West Razabazar.

Their only son Mahir Sarowar Megh, then 5, was at home at that time.

Nousher Ali Roman, Runi's brother, filed a case with Sher-e-Bangla Police Station on the following day.