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The Centre today told the Delhi High Court that it would perform a fresh autopsy on the body of former IFS officer Mukul Arya who was found dead in his office premises in Ramallah, Palestine last week. Arya was India's representative to Palestine.

The Court was hearing a petition by the deceased officer's mother. Taking the Centre's submission on record, the Court has disposed off the petition.

The petition stated that Arya, "a young man of 37 years belonging to the Indian Foreign Services (IFS) was serving as the Ambassador of Republic of India in Palestine - he allegedly, passed away at his residence in Ramallah, Palestine on the evening of March 3, 2022."

It has been stated that he died in mysterious circumstances, however, "the Ministry of Justice, Forensic Pathology, State of Palestine issued a Declaration of Death/ Post Mortem Report citing the cause of death as “Myocardial Infarction”."

Arya's mother, the petitioner, disputed the said report of the Ministry of Justice, Forensic Pathology, State of Palestine and prayed before the Court for directions to immediately constitute a panel of doctors from AIIMS for conducting the post mortem and autopsy. The prayer was accepted by the Court and petition disposed off with liberty granted to approach the Court again, if necessary.

The bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma allowed the urgent mentioning of the plea earlier today, following which the matter was listed before and heard by the bench of Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar.

Arya had served in the Indian embassies in Kabul and Moscow earlier in his career as a diplomat. India’s representative to Palestine, Arya, had also served at India’s Permanent Delegation to the UNESCO in Paris.