More than 20,000 Palestinian children killed. Over 44,000 injured. 97 percent of Gaza's schools damaged or destroyed. And a clear pattern of Palestinian children being deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces.

These are among the findings of a United Nations investigation that is most scathing so far. The man presenting those findings is not a diplomat or politician. He is a retired Indian judge. His name is Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar.

Justice Muralidhar’s name is associated with some of the most consequential legal battles in India in the past two decades. 

This was the same judge transferred unceremoniously by the Modi government in the middle of the night after his Bench expressed anguish over Delhi Police’s failure to file FIRs against alleged hate speeches by BJP leaders. The man who was never brought to the Supreme Court as a judge is today chairing a UN Commission of Inquiry examining one of the world’s most devastating conflicts.

So who exactly is Justice S. Muralidhar? And why was he chosen to lead an investigation whose findings are making headlines around the world?

I’m Pooja Prasanna and Let Me Explain.

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Produced by Megha Mukundan, script by Pooja Prasanna, camera by Ajay R, and edited by Nikhil Sekhar ET.