In the same year, at the Bangkok Asian Games, Murali won the 400 m bronze behind Abbas Al Aibi of Iraq and compatriot Uday K. Prabhu.

They set up the "Mercy Kuttan Athletics Academy" in Kochi, a non-profit organisation to train promising youth for major international competitions.

[citation needed] On 19 December 2010 at 1.30 am, Murali Kuttan suffered a massive heart attack and died at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.

[3] He came to the city, along with his wife and son Sujith Kuttan, in connection with the ongoing 54th Kerala State Schools athletics meet.

Sujith won the senior boys' 100m gold medal with a new meet record without knowing that his father had died in the previous night.