Odisha Crime Branch Steps Up Probe Into Mysterious Death Of Russian Lawmaker & Friend

Bhubaneswar: Stepping up its probe into the mysterious death of Russian lawmaker Pavel Antov and his friend on Wednesday, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police questioned several people and is set to send a special team to Rayagada where the incidents took place last week.

According to reports, the Crime Branch, which had launched an investigation in the death case following DGP Sunil Kumar Bansal’s order on Tuesday, will rush its team to visit the hotel where the deceased and two other Russian co-travellers stayed in Rayagada.

While Antov (65) was found in a pool of blood outside the hotel building on December 24, his friend Vladimir Bidenov (62) was found dead in hotel room on December 22.

Crime Branch sleuths are likely to question the hotel staff and others besides examining the incident sites in Rayagada.

The CB sleuths also questioned Russian tourists Pansasenko Natalia (44) and Turov Mikhail (64), who had accompanied the deceased, after bringing them from Rayagada. They were asked to stay back and cooperate in the investigation.

The two Russians and tour guide Jitendra Singh were first brought to Bhubaneswar and later taken to the CID-Crime Branch headquarters at Cuttack on Wednesday amid tight security for further questioning.

Senior CB officials questioned the Russians as part of efforts to ascertain the circumstances that led to the deaths. They were also asked about the reason behind their visit to Rayagada, sources said, adding that further interrogation of the two Russians and the tour guide is likely to be carried out.

Meanwhile, the postmortem reports have showed that Bidenov died due to a heart attack while Antov had an accidental death. Antov sustained a severe internal injury after allegedly falling down from the third floor of the hotel.