Delhi High Court Orders Videographed Autopsy Of India's Palestine Envoy Mukul Arya On Mother's Plea Alleging Foul Play

A plea has been filed in the Delhi High Court to immediately constitute a panel of doctors from the AIIMS hospital for conducting a Post Mortem and Autopsy on IFS Mukul Arya, India's representative to Palestine who was found dead in his office premises in Ramallah last week.

The plea was mentioned earlier today before a division bench headed by Justice Vipin Sanghi which was allowed. The plea was thereafter listed before Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar.

During the course of hearing today, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra appeared on behalf of the petitioner. 

On the other hand, Anurag Ahluwalia appearing for the Central Government, on instructions, informed the Court that the Ministry of External Affairs will faciliate the autopsy to be conducted at AIIMS as prayed for by the family. 

Accordingly, the Court allowed the prayer to conduct autopsy of the deceased's body and ordered that the autopsy be videographed. 

The plea was thus disposed off with liberty to the petitioner approach the court again in case of any grievance.

The plea has been moved by Roshan Lata Arya, mother of the deceased to look into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the untimely and unfortunate death of her son.

The plea has been filed through Advocates Nitin Saluja, Mudit Gupta and Anubhav Singh.

"It is apposite to mention that though the Declaration of Death cites the date of death as 03.03.2022, however, shockingly, till 06.03.2022, the body of the deceased was not discovered and his death/ condition was unknown. It was only when the family of the deceased made a hue and cry about him being not approachable, it was discovered that the Deceased had passed away," the plea states.

The plea also states that the family did not even receive any official communication from the Central Government or any other authority intimating them of their son's death till date.

It has been averred that even before the Petitioner's family could reach Ramallah, the Deceased's room was cleaned up and all the evidence were destroyed. It has also been stated that the room was organised, bed sheets were changed and the room was sanitised.

"The Petitioner and Petitioner's daughter on 08.03.2021 and 09.03.2021 made multiple representations to the government agencies disputing the declaration of death dated 07.03.2021, and alleging foul play in the death of the deceased. The Petitioner and Petitioner's daughter requested for a second autopsy in India. However, the authorities have not adhere to the Petitioner's request nor even replied to the representations," the plea adds.

Accordingly, the plea seeks Commission of Inquiry into the suspicious circumstances under which the Deceased died and submit a report before the Court within a stipulated period of time.

The plea is accompanied by an application seeking interim direction to the Respondents for conducting autopsy of the body of the deceased or in alternative direct them to make necessary arrangements for proper preservation and storage of body.

Case Title: ROSHAN LATA ARYA v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 189

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