Rapid Action Battalion personnel carry the exhumed body of the slain journalist Meherun Runi on Thursday morning in the Azimpur graveyard in Dhaka. — Ali Hossain Mintu

The Rapid Action Battalion exhumed the bodies of the slain journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi on Thursday morning for second forensic tests.
Around two months and a half after the murder, the battalion’s forensic wing additional superintendent Jafar Ullah appealed for exhuming the bodies for viscera examination and other forensic tests.
The bodies were exhumed as a forensic test run after the death but the viscera evidence was not preserved, said the battalion’s legal and media wing director commander M Sohail.
The viscera examination is needed for some forensic tests as they were not run earlier, he said.
The work to exhume the bodies, on a court order, began in the Azimpur graveyard about 10:15am on Thursday and the bodies were pulled out by 11:15am.
The operation took place in the presence of battalion officials and executive magistrate Shahiduzzaman.
The bodies were then taken to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue about midday on Thursday.
M Sohail also told journalists at the Azimpur graveyard, ‘The investigator has a lot of questions to be answered. The body would be examined for the answers and other clues.’
If there is a lack of sufficient technology for viscera test in the country, the bodies would be sent abroad, he added.
Jafar Ullah, who is investigating the case, appealed for exhuming the bodies saying that he needed to confirm whether the two were poisoned before the murder.
Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s forensics chief Mokhlesur Rahman, assistant professor Kamrul Hasan and lecturer Parvez Iftekhar were there when the bodies were exhumed.
The battalion’s forensics wing deputy director Shafiqul Islam told reporters that the bodies were wrapped in polythene during the burial and they expected the evidence to remain in a good condition.
After the second post-mortem examinations, Mokhlesur Rahman told reporters that the bodies were highly decomposed but they had taken some evidences from organs of the bodies and sent for the viscera examination. The report would be ready in 15 to 30 days.
The bodies were buried again in the graveyard about 5:15pm on Thursday.
The couple was killed in their rented flat at Pashchim Rajabazar in Dhaka on February 11.
A case was filed with the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar police in this connection. The battalion was given the task of investigation by the High Court on April 18 after the Detective Branch had failed to manky headway in the investigation of the murder.