Activist Muruganandam’s Murder Was Not Just a Crime, but a Blow to the Struggle for Rights

A country’s civil liberties live on only through the tireless efforts of citizens who choose to defend the rights of the vulnerable – often at any cost. At the recently convened 80th session of the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders presented the uncertain and hostile environment that many human rights defenders face, particularly those seeking climate justice: the criminalisation of their work, which is forcing many of them to seek protection through courts just to continue their mission.

The story of L. Muruganandam, a disability rights activist and advocate, is a tragic episode of this reality that human rights defenders all over the world face. Unjustly, his own life was brutally cut short a few months ago, even as he struggled and fought for justice in courts. In the end, the very system meant to protect him could not save him.

Advocate and human rights defender

The killing occurred in Tamil Nadu, a state that boasts of its social justice model and progress in education. But those claims ring hollow when the details of this case are revealed.

Muruganandam was a champion of accessibility and inclusion in public life as well as public spaces. His efforts led to significant orders from the Madras high court, such as the installation of disabled-friendly toilets on the court campus, the retrofitting of public buses and government buildings for accessibility and the inclusion of disability rights in the Tamil Nadu school curriculum.

The recent and significant Supreme Court direction, issued on July 15, 2025, by Justice R. Mahadevan to make prisons disabled-friendly has come to be known as the “Muruganandam Doctrine”.

This judgement directs the Union and state governments to equip prisons with the facilities required by persons with disabilities – from proper nutrition to counselling services and regular training for prison officials. It also mandates regular monitoring of these facilities. While delivering this judgement, the court firmly refused to let the concerns of persons with disabilities fade into the background – a neglect that has persisted even close to a decade after the enactment of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

The judgement itself stemmed from Muruganandam’s own experience of spending several days in prison – which the Tamil Nadu State Human Rights Commission, Madras High Court as well as the Supreme Court accepted was a wrongful incarceration, resulting from a false police complaint, lodged against him by his paternal uncle over a civil dispute. However, it is the harsh conditions he endured there that spurred Muruganandam to file a PIL seeking the welfare and protection of persons with disabilities in prisons across the country.

This was the person who was brutally murdered on July 28, 2025 – just 13 days after this landmark judgement – at a school campus. The attack was perpetrated by a gang of men said to include his close relatives, over a dispute that was also before the courts. He was hacked to death on the same day his father had faced a similar brutal fate in 1999.

Also read: 'Rights Defenders Face Unacceptably High Threats': UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Muruganandam was killed despite having sought protection from the law courts, foreseeing such an attack. But a man who had earned recognition for tirelessly pursuing justice for persons with disabilities – while himself living with severe disability – was left vulnerable and unprotected when those threats became real.

A cold-blooded murder near a school

Another heart-wrenching aspect of this crime is that it took place adjacent to the campus of a school owned by the prime accused in this case, who is also its correspondent. The police have claimed that the same man was involved in the murder of Muruganandam’s father 20 years earlier. The school was functioning with students within when the killing occurred. While students attended science classes or discussed poems, short stories and the history of India’s independence and why democracy and social justice matter, a murder took place outside their classrooms, in broad daylight.

The principal of the school was allegedly an accomplice in the murder. There are reports of allegations that CCTV cameras had been removed from the spot before the crime and that even the windows of classrooms facing the crime scene were closed. It is alleged that a gang of hired killers was allowed to enter the campus in school buses days before the attack.

An educational institution in the land of Periyar becomes a place for a crime so cruel! Eyewitnesses have claimed that a gang of men wielding sickles broke open Muruganandam’s head and injured a lawyer accompanying him on his hand.

The alleged complicity of a government servant – the surveyor who summoned Muruganandam to the location – and that of the school’s owner and correspondent, identified as the mastermind behind the crime, has sent shockwaves through the system. The entire education system stands indicted when such an institution continues to operate as if nothing has happened – with no action taken against the principal or the administration.

A chargesheet has been filed against 20 accused persons in the case.

When courts could not protect

Courts have long been seen as sanctuaries of justice — places where even the most marginalised can seek justice and protection. Yet this incident has shattered that faith, revealing a painful reality about the limits of courts of law. The judgments delivered in Muruganandam’s name could not guarantee his safety or dignity in the country he sought to make more just. Judges of the same courts where he once argued cases have now recorded their condolences, after noting his absence in hearings where he was expected to appear.

Also read: Without Looking for Accountability, Indians Have Grown Used to Pervasive Injustice

Muruganandam’s brutal murder was not merely a violation of an individual’s right to life but a blow to the collective struggle for the rights of persons with disabilities. The depth of that loss was evident when scores of differently abled people from across districts gathered in his hometown for a solidarity meeting, condemning the murder, demanding action against the perpetrators, and seeking accountability for attempts to buy impunity by corrupting the very system he believed in.

Protection for human rights defenders?

Muruganandam's murder was not an isolated incident; it was preceded by the killings of environmental activists in Karur, Pudukottai and several other districts of Tamil Nadu. These activists, too, faced similar ordeals. Barely a month after Muruganandam’s killing, and again in Tiruppur, another human rights defender, Palanisamy, was murdered.

With the detention of Sonam Wangchuk in Ladakh and countless other activists imprisoned across India, the pattern is unmistakable – there is no denying the persistent attacks on activists by non-state actors, which is being compounded by the growing hostility of the state towards them.

Muruganandam’s murder also exposes the shallow powers of the systems in this country. His death is a loss to all persons with disabilities whose voice he had been for many years. The bitter truth is that even the guardians of justice could not protect one who had devoted himself to the cause of rights.

It is, thus, high time the country pays attention to the voices of justice and truth being raised against all odds for equality and a dignified life for all. This series of murders calls for immediate attention from the state, which must enact a law specifically to protect those who are striving to make justice a reality – our human rights defenders.

Grace Anu is a counsellor at People’s Watch, Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

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