Bhubaneswar, Jan 8 Amid the mysterious deaths of two Russian nationals, the death of a Russian cargo ship engineer in the Paradip port area has got the Odisha police in a tizzy.
The Russian, identified as Milyakov Sergey (51), was found dead in a cargo ship anchored at the Paradip port in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district on January 3 early morning. Sergey was the chief engineer of the vessel, M. B. Aldnah, which was on its way to Mumbai from Chittagong Port in Bangladesh via Paradip.
The police suspect that Milyakov died due to a heart attack. However, the exact cause of the death will be ascertained after proper investigation, a police official said.
During the post-mortem of Milyakov, the doctors found an injury mark on his left forehead. However, it is yet to be ascertained if the injury mark was caused after the Russian engineer fell down in the ship due to a heart attack or if there is some other reason behind it.
The entire proceedings of the autopsy were videographed. Viscera samples of Sergey's vital organs such as the brain, heart and lungs have been collected and sent to the State Forensic Science Laboratory at Bhubaneswar, sources said.
"Post-mortem has been conducted. We suspect it to be a natural death. After a forensic report is available it will be further clear whether the death was natural or homicidal," said Dr Sagar Kumar Behera, who conducted the autopsy on Sergey's body.
Behera said that as per reports Sergey was under medication for some medical problem and it is suspected to be the cause of his death. He had an injury on the front side of his head which may have been caused due to his falling down, informed the doctor. The body is at the mortuary of Paradip port hospital for preservation.
The police have questioned the 22 members of the cargo ship's crew but have not yet come up with a statement on the reason behind the death of the Russian.
As this is the third such sudden death of a Russian in Odisha under mysterious circumstances, questions are being raised whether the deaths of the three Russ are just a coincidence or some conspiracy is there.
Commenting on the deaths, Odisha DGP Sunil Bansal had said, "Investigation is going on. So far, we have not found any foul play in the incidents."
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi, on Thursday said that all three deaths shouldn't be clubbed together.
"Necessary investigation is being carried out into the deaths of Russ in Odisha," Bagchi said. "We are now aware of the death of a Russian sailor in international waters off the coast of Odisha. His body has been brought to Paradip port for formalities. I wouldn't like to link all three cases together."
Referring to comments on the alleged "strangeness" of the cases, Bagchi said he wouldn't like to link all of them together nor look at it all together. "India is a large country where a lot of foreigners visit," he added.
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