Odisha: Russian Lawmaker’s fatal fall at Rayagada hotel to be recreated

Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch of Odisha Police is contemplating to recreate the circumstances leading to the death of Russian lawmaker Pavel Antov (65) at Sai International Hotel at Rayagada town on December 24 last year.

Antov, a bitter critic of Russian President Vladimir Puti, reportedly died after falling from the third floor of the hotel on the fateful day.

The Crime Branch is planning to conduct a dummy simulation exercise of falling from the roof top in similar circumstances, said a senior official.

For this, a dummy of same weight and height as the deceased shall be created with the help of experts of anatomy department of AIIMS and forensic experts. The objective is to study the fall pattern, he added.

The Crime Branch has contacted former Director of CFSL, CBI, Dr. Rajendra Dangi and Dr. Dogra of AIIMS-Delhi.  Dangi and Dogra are leading experts in dummy fall simulation exercise. They have been involved in resolving several complicated cases of CBI, said the official.

The two experts will ascertain the cause, nature and manner of the incident, the injuries on Antov’s body and crosscheck the same with the postmortem report. This is expected to help the investigating officers of the Crime Branch to reach a definite conclusion in the case, he added.

Antov and his friend Vladimir Bydanov along with Russian couple Turov Mikhail and Natalia Panasenko had checked into the hotel on December 21 last year.

Bydanov was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his hotel room on December 22. Two days later, Antov was found dead at the same hotel.