Known in administrative circles as “strong headed”, 2007-batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer C Murugan has been engaged in open conflict with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) since he was deputed as a Special Roll Observer in the South 24 Parganas and South Kolkata districts for the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Ahead of the publication of the final voter lists on Saturday, Murugan has faced criticism from TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, while party workers and supporters have attempted to block his movement and activities as a roll observer, particularly in Diamond Harbour, which Abhishek represents in the Lok Sabha.
On February 18, Abhishek alleged that EC officials, including Murugan, were “openly disobeying” the Supreme Court’s orders on SIR procedures and accepted documentation. He shared screenshots of a WhatsApp group chat between elections officials, claiming it shows them flouting the apex court’s directions on “transparency, due process and adherence to official channels of communication”.
“Even more disturbing are credible reports of Special Roll Observer C Murugan issuing instructions regarding the acceptability of birth certificates directly to micro-observers in a WhatsApp group, to inflate deletion numbers. Need I remind the EC of the Supreme Court’s categorical directive that the role of micro-observers must remain strictly assistive? Why, then, is statutory procedure being bypassed, and under whose instructions?” Abhishek wrote on X.
On X, Moitra posted the poster of the film “Quick Gun Murugan”, saying, “Dear EC, please control your Special Roll Observer C Murugan, who is issuing incorrect directions on secret WhatsApp groups to micro-observers in violation of Supreme Court orders.”
Dear @ECISVEEP please control your Roll Observer C.Murugan IAS 2007 Dy Chairperson Tea Board who is issuing incorrect directions on secret whatsap groups to Micro Observers in violation of Supreme Court orders. pic.twitter.com/XX8OuwJANu
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) February 18, 2026
But Murugan, true to his reputation in some circles, shot back at Moitra. “I do not have as many guns as depicted in the picture,” Murugan said, referring to the cowboy character depicted on the post. “However, I was trained to handle different types of guns and legally and effectively used them during my four-and-a-half years of police Service in Tamil Nadu.”
Before becoming a bureaucrat, Murugan received BSc from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and then an MSc from Kerala Agricultural University. Murugan began his professional career in the Tamil Nadu Police in 2003. In his very first posting in Nagapattinam, Murugan arrested a DMK leader for allegedly molesting a widow. He was later transferred to a suburb of western Chennai, where he shot to prominence after an encounter involving two notorious criminals and the arrest of a serial offender in dozens of “bureau pulling” or burglary cases from Chennai’s suburbs, a source close to Murugan told The Indian Express.
“However, he realised he did not want to pursue a career in the police and wanted to sit for the UPSC exam. He took a three-month leave and Rs 50,000 personal loan to go to Delhi UPSC coaching,” said a source close to Murugan. The officer was born to a Dalit family in Tamil Nadu and his father, a DMK worker, was murdered in 1989 when Murugan was a Class 9 student. “Even if he was Dalit candidate, he got very good rank in the UPSC exam,” a close friend of Murugan said.
After he cleared the UPSC preliminary exams, while still with the Tamil Nadu Police, he was transferred to the Tihar Jail as part of its inner security team as an Assistant Commandant. In Tihar, since before Independence, a unit of the Tamil Nadu Police has always been deputed to the inner security team. During his tenure, Murugan was in charge of the “high security zone”, which housed high-profile inmates from gangsters Abu Salem and Pappu Yadav to terrorists like Afzal Guru.
A year into his stint at Tihar, he cleared the UPSC exam in 2006 and began his career as an IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre in 2007.
During his probation period, in 2008, Murugan served as an Assistant District Magistrate in Paschim Medinipur. During this time, the district witnessed an attack by Maoist insurgents on a convoy carrying then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Murugan himself was part of the convoy.
After his probation period, he was posted as a Block Development Officer (BDO) in the Maoist-affected Salboni area in Paschim Medinipur, before being elevated to Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Jangipur, Murshidabad district, in 2009. Six months later, he was transferred back as Jhargram SDO. At this time, the Gyaneshwari Express accident that killed nearly 150 people in 2010 and the Netai massacre in which CPI(M) activists allegedly opened fire and killed several villagers in 2011 occurred in the region.
Clash with Trinamool
In 2010, Murugan was involved in a tussle with local TMC leader Sukumar Hansda after a company linked to the politician was accused of price gouging, sources said. Shortly after Mamata Banerjee assumed power in 2011, he was transferred to Cooch Behar district and appointed the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) and was also given additional responsibility as the Managing Director of the North Bengal Surface Transport Corporation. In Cooch Behar too, he clashed with a local TMC leader in a controversy over a government tender, sources said.
His next posting, as the Director of the Public Vehicle Department (PVD) in Kolkata, was also eventful. Not only was the PVD divided into three branches under his leadership, he also reportedly drew ire for “ending middleman culture” at the PVD, a source close to Murugan said.
“He always got involved in controversy under this (TMC) government as he was never ready to do any work beyond rules and regulations. He was then sent to the Tourism Development Corporation and there also he did not survive. After that he was shunted to the West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBIIDC). For some time, he was transferred as Secretary of the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) in 2017,” said a senior IAS officer.
In June 2018, while a state Cabinet meeting was being held in Darjeeling, alleged supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) mobilised in the vicinity and clashed with police forces responding to an intelligence tip-off, leading to police vehicles being burnt and petrol bombs being hurled. The initial violence was followed by a 104-day-long bandh in Darjeeling and alleged “militant mobilisation” for more than three months led by GJM supporters.
However, after the unrest died down, Murugan was again transferred to the WBIIDC. For the duration of the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls, the EC had deployed him in Dakshin Dinajpur district as the District Magistrate. After the polls, he returned to his post at the WBIIDC.
In 2025, the West Bengal government cleared his application for deputation in the Union government, as the Deputy Chairman of the Tea Board.
Last November, Murugan was among 12 senior IAS officers appointed a Special Roll Observers in Bengal for the SIR exercise. In late December, Murugan’s convoy was allegedly attacked at Magrahat in South 24 Parganas district, where he had earlier been gheraoed by voters over deletions in the draft rolls. Murugan later flagged “serious security lapses” after which the EC asked the West Bengal Director General of Police to submit a report on the alleged attack.