The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said it will arrange for an autopsy on the body of Mukul Arya, the Indian envoy to Palestine who was found dead in Ramallah city on March 7, reported The Indian Express.
The Delhi High Court took up the petition filed by Mukul Arya’s mother, Roshan Lata Arya, seeking a post-mortem of her son’s body by a team of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the National capital.
In the order, Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar said the post-mortem should be recorded on video, according to The Indian Express.
The Ministry of External Affairs told the court that the autopsy would be carried out as per the wishes of Arya’s family.
Roshan Lata Arya had filed the petition seeking an investigation into the “suspicious” circumstances of Mukul Arya’s death, according to Live Law. The plea stated that although official documents cite March 3 as the date of Mukul Arya’s death, his body was not discovered until March 6.
“It was only when the family of the deceased made a hue and cry about him not being approachable, it was discovered that the deceased had passed away,” the plea stated, according to Live Law.
Mukul Arya had visited India in January to meet his family, according to The Indian Express. He last spoke to his family over a video call from Palestine on March 3.
The family’s petition has also said that no official communication was ever sent regarding Arya’s death. It added that Arya’s room was cleaned up before the family reached Ramallah city and “all the evidence was destroyed”.
The family alleged that multiple representations were made to the government alleging foul play and disputing the date of death as March 7 but there was no response.
On Tuesday, Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, had said Arya died of “natural causes”, according to PTI. “We urge that the tragic demise of a young diplomat be treated with decency and respect,” Bagchi had said.
Arya was a 2008-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, who had earlier served at the Indian embassies in Kabul and Moscow.
He was also India’s permanent representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris and had served at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.
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