Raygada (Odisha): The mysterious deaths of two Russians, one of them a known critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, within days of each other in a hotel in Odisha’s Rayagada has forced the state police to order a CID probe after dismissing the two deaths as mere instances of heart attack and suicide.

Odisha DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal Tuesday ordered a CID probe into the “unnatural” deaths of two Russian nationals, Times of India reported.

Russian businessman and lawmaker Pavel Antov (65) and his friend Vladimir Bydanov (62) with two other Russians—Mikhail Turov and Natalia Panasenko—checked themselves into the Sai International hotel in Rayagada, around 375 kilometers from the state capital of Bhubaneswar.

They had come to Odisha on a tourist visa to celebrate the Antov’s 66th birthday.

The guide, Jitendra Singh, told the Times of India that the group had come from Delhi to Bhubaneswar on December 19, and travelled to Daringibadi in Kandhamal district on December 20. They reached Rayagada the next day.

On the morning of December 22, Vladimir Bydanov, had to be rushed to the local hospital after being found unconscious in his hotel room on the first floor.

Singh claimed that Bydanov had a heart ailment and had been drinking since he arrived in Odisha, as per the TOI report.

Local media reports said both Bydanov and Antov had been drinking heavily, which probably led to the former’s death.

According to the police, Bydanov died from a “heart stroke”.

His body was cremated after the local police was informed by the Russian diplomatic authorities informed that his family could not travel to India.

Two days later, his hotel roommate, Pavel Antov, was found lying in a pool of blood outside the hotel, the reports said.

The death of two Russians in quick succession sent “shockwaves” across the city, as per a local media report.

The 'unnatural deaths'

Initially, the local media identified him as “Pavel Anthem”. They said citing ‘sources’ that he jumped from the third floor after attending Bydanov’s cremation. Some of those reports noted that Pavel had been visibly distressed.

Another media report quoted Hotel owner Koushik Thakkar as saying that Antov was visibly disturbed and appeared to be under depression following the death of Bydanov’s.

The two remaining Russians—Natalia Pansasenko and Mikhail Turov—who were reportedly attempting to leave Rayagada after Bydanov’s death, were questioned, said media reports.

However, they seemed to have been allowed to leave the hotel on Tuesday, December 27.

The Hindu has reported that Antov’s body, too, was cremated.

However, reportedly, the police continue to still believe that Bydanov had died from his prevailing heart condition, while Antov took his own life.

Police swings into action

On December 27 evening, Odisha police announced that Director General of Police Sunil Bansal had transferred the two cases of “unnatural deaths of two Russian nationals” registered at Rayagada police station to the CID-Crime Branch for full-fledged inquiry.

The controversy

The deaths have given rise to speculation and turned the global spotlight on the deaths as Antov was a well-known critic of Vladimir Putin's regime, and also his invasion of Ukraine, media reports said.

In June, Antov had slammed the Russian government for missile strikes against Ukraine.

According to BBC, a WhatsApp message on Antov’s account appeared to condemn the Russian missile attack on a residential area in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in June. The message read, “It’s extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror”.

Antov, too, has been described as Putin critic by BBC and British newspaper Daily Mail.

Pavel Antov was an elected Russian politician and sausage tycoon, whose five-year terms in the legislative assembly was to end in September 2023.

Russian news agency TASS said that he also chaired the Assembly’s committee on Agrarian Policy, Environmental Management and Ecology.

He topped the 2019 Forbes list of wealthiest Russian lawmakers and civil servants. In 2020, his position fell to 26, and later his name disappeared from the list.

The message was deleted and Antov said he didn’t write the message, but by someone else whose views on the Ukraine war, he strongly opposed.

He maintained that it was written on his messenger by accident and asserted that he was a “patriot”, supporting the Ukraine war and President Vladimir Putin.