On Wednesday, the post-mortem reports of the two Russian nationals who died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel in Odisha revealed that the Russian MP and businessman Pavel Antov died of internal injuries after falling from his third-floor window, two days after his roommate Vladimir Bydanov died of a heart attack in his room.
On December 22 and 25, two Russian tourists died under mysterious circumstances in a hotel in Odisha, India. As per reports, on December 21, four Russian tourists checked into Sai International Hotel in Rayagada, Odisha. One of them, Vladimir Bydanov, was found dead inside the hotel room on December 22. Reports suggest that Bydanov died from a heart attack, and Pavel Antov allegedly committed suicide after attending his funeral on December 25.
The details of the post-mortem report were made public by the Odisha Police a day after Odisha DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal ordered a CID probe into the ‘unnatural’ death of the two Russian nationals. According to the reports, Antov died after falling from the hotel roof on December 24.
The Police stated that Antov had apparently arrived in Rayagada on a tourist visa with Bydanov and two other pals to celebrate his 66th birthday. “Bydanov was discovered asleep in a hotel room on the first floor, surrounded by empty wine bottles. Doctors declared him dead after rushing him to the district hospital,” the officer said adding that the deceased’s other associates are being interrogated. Meanwhile, the hotel owner confirmed to the Police that Antov was visibly disturbed following the death of Bydanov.
In another such report following the death of Russian MP and businessman Pavel Antov who was a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the forensic experts stated that the Odisha police failed to preserve the viscera of the deceased before cremation and that it did not seek the viscera samples.
Lalmohan Routray, Rayagada’s top public health official, stated that viscera samples of Bydanov were stored for laboratory testing. When an autopsy does not reveal the cause of death, samples of the liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney are submitted for forensic testing. “Antov exhibited various injury marks, which were most likely caused by the fall. The police had not expressly requested that viscera samples be sent “said the doctor who performed Antov’s autopsy.
Also, former officers and legal experts slammed police for failing to follow regular operating procedures, as per a report in the Times of India. Bipin Bihari Mishra, the ex-DGP of Odisha, believes the viscera should have been preserved for further testing. “That would have been an ideal situation,” he said.
However, the Police stated that autopsy and viscera reports were not the only things that could progress the investigation in the given case. “Viscera samples would definitely be desired by us, although autopsy and viscera reports are not the only things to rely on in the investigation. Two separate cases of unnatural deaths have been registered,” a state police crime branch officer said.
As reported earlier, one of the persons who died in Odisha was a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dubbed the ‘highest-earning elected politician’ in Russia, Antov was a multi-millionaire who runs a successful sausage business. He was elected PM by the main pro-Putin party, United Russia. He has been an open critic of the President for the ongoing war in Ukraine. In June this year, Antov had termed the Russia-Ukraine war as Russian ‘terror’ wounding Ukrainian civilians.
Following his remarks, he was under intense pressure, after which he withdrew his comments and apologized for the same. In a social media post, he had called his statement ‘an unfortunate misunderstanding’ and a ‘technical error’. He backed President Putin and said he always had supported him and sincerely backed the military operations in Ukraine.
