| Honorific Prefix: | Captain |
| M. N. Mulla | |
| Birth Date: | 1926 5, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Gorakhpur, United Provinces, British India |
| Death Place: | Arabian Sea, near Diu, Gujarat, India |
| Allegiance: |  India |
| Rank: | Captain |
| Serviceyears: | 1948–1971 |
| Battles: | Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 |
| Awards: | Maha Vir Chakra (posthumous) |
Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, (15 May 1926 – 9 December 1971) was an officer of the Indian Navy. As the commanding officer of, he chose to go down with his ship when his ship was sunk during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Mulla was born on 15 May 1926 in a Kashmiri family in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh to T. N. Mulla in a family well-known in Allahabad judicial circles.[1] [2] [3] He joined the Royal Indian Navy as a cadet in January 1946 and underwent training in the United Kingdom.
Mulla was commissioned in the Royal Indian Navy on 1 May 1948. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 16 September 1958. In April 1961, he was selected to attend the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.[4] He was promoted to the rank of commander on 30 June 1964.[5] [6] 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 .
He served as the deputy naval adviser to the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom from 1965 to 1967.
During the 1971 War, Mulla was commanding the 14th anti-submarine squadron, a task force that formed part of the Western Fleet. The squadron consisted of the, and .[7] 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 64km (40miles) off Diu. He issued orders for the ship to be abandoned because it was sinking.[8] 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:[9] [10]
Mulla was regarded among the finest seamen in the Navy and highly-intelligent officer. On 28 January 2000, the Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee released a commemorative postage stamp issued by India Post paying tribute to Mulla.[11]
A memorial for the tribute to Mulla and other martyred sailors exists at Diu 20.7028°N 70.9769°W. 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.[12]
In Selection Centre South (SCS), Banglore, there is a hall named Capt.(IN) MN Mulla Hall after Capt. MN Mulla, MVC.[13]
An auditorium at the DSSC Wellington is also named after him.