Mahendra Nath Mulla

Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, (15 May 1926 – 9 December 1971) was an Indian Navy officer. As the commanding officer of , he chose to go down with his ship, when it was sunk during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Early life Mulla was born on 15 May 1926 in a Kashmiri family in Gorakhpur, United Provinces to T. N. Mulla in a family well-known in Allahabad judicial circles. He joined the Royal Indian Navy as a cadet in January 1946 and underwent training in the United Kingdom. He was promoted to the rank of commander on 30 June 1964. He served on the Hunt-class destroyer and the Bathurst-class Minesweeper . He also served as the executive officer of the Black Swan-class sloop and commanded the R-class destroyer . The squadron was assigned the task of hunting and destroying enemy submarines in the North Arabian Sea. At 2050 hours on 9 December 1971, his vessel, INS Khukri, was hit by a torpedo fired by an enemy submarine, , about off Diu. He issued orders for the ship to be abandoned because it was sinking. He chose to go down with the ship in the highest traditions of the Indian Navy. Mulla was decorated with the Maha Vir Chakra, the second-highest gallantry award.

The citation for the Maha Vir Chakra reads as follows:

Legacy

Mulla was regarded among the finest seamen in the Navy and highly-intelligent officer.

A memorial for the tribute to Mulla and other martyred sailors exists at Diu . The memorial constitutes a full-scale model of INS Khukri encased in a glass house, placed on a hillock facing the sea. The Captain M. N. Mulla Auditorium, at Navy Nagar, Colaba in Mumbai, is named after him. A bust of Capt. Mulla stands in the foyer. The then Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Madhvendra Singh inaugurated the auditorium.

In Selection Centre South (SCS), Banglore, there is a hall named Capt.(IN) MN Mulla Hall after Capt. MN Mulla, MVC.

An auditorium at the DSSC Wellington is also named after him.

In the movie Border 2, Ahan Shetty portrayed Lt. Cdr. Mahendra Singh Rawat, a character based on the real-life Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla.