Facilitating 2nd autopsy on Arya at AIIMS: Centre tells Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday told the Delhi high court that it is facilitating a second autopsy on Indian foreign service officer Mukul Arya, 37, who was found dead in suspicious circumstances at his official residence in Palestine’s Ramallah on March 3.

Anurag Ahluwalia, who appeared for the Centre, told Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, the autopsy will be conducted at New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as per the wishes of Arya’s family.

The court was hearing a plea of Arya’s mother, Roshan Lata, seeking a second post mortem of her son, who was India’s representative in Palestine.

In her plea, Lata said the report of the post-mortem conducted in Palestine citing “Myocardial Infarction” as the cause of death and that she was unsatisfied with the finding. The petition also sought directions for the formation of a panel of AIIMS doctors for a second post mortem and submission of its report to the court within a stipulated time.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra urged the court to allow the family members to attend the post mortem at AIIMS. The court noted the submissions and disposed of the matter with a direction for video graphing the autopsy.

“Autopsy to be video graphed…Petition disposed of with liberty to approach the court again if they are not satisfied,” the court said.

The petition was urgently mentioned before a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Dinesh Kumar Sharma, which allowed it to be heard on Thursday.