Rayagada: The body of Russian millionaire Pavel Antov, who is believed to have died after falling from the terrace of a hotel in Odisha in a case of suspected suicide, had no visible external injuries or blood stains when it was brought to the Rayagada district hospital on 24 December, ThePrint has learnt.
Antov, a sausage tycoon-turned-lawmaker from the city of Vladimir, was found dead hours after he attended the funeral of Vladimir Bidenov, with whom he was sharing a room at the Sai International Hotel in Rayagada.
Bidenov, too, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at the hotel on the morning of 22 December in what police suspect to be a case of a heart attack.
Rayagada’s Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) Lalmohan Routrai told ThePrint that while Bidenov’s viscera sample was preserved and sent for further examination to Bhubaneswar, Pavlov’s wasn’t retained “since there was no request from the doctors” to preserve his viscera sample.
Antov (65) was transiting Rayagada as part of a group of four that included Bidenov (61), Mikhail Turov (64) and Panasenko (44). The four hired a tour guide, Jitendra Singh, upon their arrival in New Delhi in mid-December, before making their way to Bhubaneswar. They had already visited Kandhamal district before reaching Rayagada and were likely to proceed to Jeypore next. According to police, all four were travelling on tourist visas.
The Odisha Crime Branch, that is investigating the deaths of Antov and Bidenov, is currently interrogating the Russian couple and the tour guide — who hails from Rajasthan — in Bhubaneswar.
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‘Inebriated at time of check-in’
Pradeep Sahu, a receptionist at the Sai International, told ThePrint that the group checked into the hotel for one night at around 4 pm on 21 December. “Both Pavel Antov and Vladimir Bidenov were in an inebriated state. The hotel staff had to help them both reach room 203 on the first floor, they couldn’t walk in that state. Next day in the morning at 9 am, Bidenov was found dead in his room and there were wine bottles around him. They had ordered beer in the room from the hotel bar the night before,” said Sahu.
Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) Sunil Kumar Bansal told local media outlets Tuesday that the “initial postmortem report confirmed heart attack to be the reason behind Bidenov’s death”.
Bidenov was cremated on 24 December at a local crematory in the presence of the other three.
While Antov and Bidenov were staying on the first floor, the other two were allotted room 303 on the second floor. After Bidenov’s death, Antov was shifted to 309 on the second floor, the room next to the one occupied by the couple.
Explaining the timeline of events as they transpired, Sahu said the three Russian nationals returned to the hotel and were sitting around the reception after attending Bidenov’s cremation on 24 December.
“My shift hadn’t started, so I was going up to the staff room on the terrace when I saw Antov climbing the stairs. He suddenly turned around and started kicking in the air as though he was angry and thought I was following him. He seemed unusual, he must have been drunk. I complained at the reception that the guest had misbehaved,” said Sahu.
According to Sahu, after he reported the incident, around eight staff members including the kitchen manager went up to the terrace to look for Antov.
“It was around 7 pm, we used our phone torch to check and then saw him (Antov) lying on the roof of the building adjoining the hotel. His eyes were open, and he was gasping. We immediately dialled the ambulance and police which arrived quickly. The tour guide took him to the hospital, and he was declared dead,” recalled Sahu.
No record of cremation
Routrai said the postmortem of both deceased Russian nationals was conducted at the Rayagada district hospital, adding that the initial postmortem reports have been submitted to the police.
Rayagada district tehsildar Tapas Rout told ThePrint that he was witness to the postmortem at the district hospital, per the police inquest. Rout was also present for Antov’s cremation, which was carried out at the cremation ground of a local mortuary around 6 pm on 26 December. It is customary for Russians to be buried and not cremated.
However, there was no record of the cremations since the cremation ground for villagers — barely five kilometres from the hotel — is managed by a local teacher and not the government and does not maintain any register of cremations or death certificates.
Counted among Russia’s wealthiest lawmakers, Antov was the founder of the Vladimir Standard meat processing plant. In 2019, Forbes pegged his fortune at around USD 140 million.
What has aroused suspicion around Antov’s death is that he was seen as a critic of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and had in June appeared to have reacted in a Whatsapp message to a Russian missile attack on a residential area in Kyiv. The message was later deleted, and Antov made a social media post reaffirming his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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