Excess bleeding from multiple injuries led to Russian tourist death in Odisha: doctors

“We can’t reveal details of the postmortem report, which we have already submitted to police through authorities,” one of the doctors said on the condition of anonymity. The doctor only said that “a few organs like lungs and liver were partially damaged, which led to excessive bleeding inside the body, which might have caused the death.”

Pavel, 65, was found dead on top of a single-storey building next to the main building of Hotel Sai International in Rayagada, on December 24 evening. Hours earlier, he had attended the cremation of his hotel room-mate, Vladimir Bidenov (62).

Bidenov was found lying unconscious in their room on December 22 “with a few empty wine bottles around him” in a suspected case of “heart attack”, according to police.

A hotel staff member said the two guests had only ordered a few bottles of beers from the hotel bar and added that they might have carried the wine bottles with them.

Police in the Rayagada hotel where the Russians died. (Express photo by Sujit Bisoyi)

Meanwhile, the Crime Branch, which is probing the case, has formed another team of four officers, two forensic experts and a photographer. The team, which has left for Rayagada, will visit the spot, examine witnesses and identify and collect evidence from the spot and local police, according to a statement issued by the Crime Branch on Thursday.

The Crime Branch has so far examined four persons: two other Russian nationals, Mikhil Turov and Natalia Panasenko, who were part of the four-member group that went to Rayagada; their tour guide Jitendra Singh, from Rajasthan; and driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling.

Hotel Sai International in Odisha’s Rayagada where Pavel Antov died on December 24. (Photo from the hotel’s Facebook page)

The Crime Branch team has found information about family members of the deceased persons and is in the process of contacting them to cross-check the veracity of information collected during the examination of Turov and Panasenko, according to the Crime Branch statement.

The statement also said that the Crime Branch team is continuing with the examination of the two Russian nationals and trying to ascertain the sequence of events at the hotel. Turov and Panasenko are cooperating with the inquiry, it stated.

The Crime Branch said it has collected copies of documents on their travel in India, their travel itinerary, bookings at different hotels, airlines and travel companies they used, and all this is being verified. The investigating officers are also trying to collect medical health records of the deceased persons, the Branch said.

According to sources, the four Russian tourists and their tour guide landed at Bhubaneswar airport on December 19 and headed to Daringibadi in Kandhamal district. On December 21, they checked in at Rayagada’s Sai International Hotel, from where they were scheduled to go to Jeypore in Koraput the following morning.