(Combining related stories)
Another Russian was found dead in Odisha on Tuesday, the third such incident in a fortnight, police said.
The Russian, identified as Milyakov Sergey, was found dead in a ship anchored at Paradip Port in Jagatsinghpur district.
The 51-year-old man was the chief engineer of the vessel, M B Aldnah, which was on its way to Mumbai from Chittagong Port in Bangladesh via Paradip.
He was found dead in his ship chamber around 4.30am.
Police could not immediately ascertain the cause of the death.
Paradip Port Trust Chairman P L Haranand confirmed the death of the Russian engineer and said an investigation was underway.
Two Russian tourists, including a lawmaker, were found dead under mysterious circumstances in Rayagada town in southern Odisha in the latter half of December.
Read more: Odisha DGP orders CID probe into ‘unnatural’ death of two Russian nationals
Pavel Antov (65), a lawmaker in Russia, died after allegedly falling from a hotel’s third floor on 24 December, while his friend Vladimir Bidenov (61) was found dead in his room on 22 December.
Both cases are being investigated by the Odisha Police.
Meanwhile, the Russian man, who had “disappeared” amid the mystery surrounding the deaths of two other men including a lawmaker from the same country in Odisha recently, was found on Saturday.
Andrew Glagolev, a self-proclaimed anti-Ukraine war activist, was located in a market area near Bhubaneswar railway station and he is now in the custody of the Government Railway Police (GRP), an official said.
His visa has expired and he had applied to the UN for asylum in India, Bhubaneswar GRP in-charge Jaydev Biswajit said.
The Russian MP was a critic of President Vladimir Putin while Glagolev, who used to stay in Puri, was also on the same page, having been sighted earlier on in Odisha’s capital holding placards with anti-war and anti-Putin slogans, seeking financial assistance.
About a month ago, the man was seen in the Bhubaneswar railway station holding a placard that read: ” I am Russian Refugee, I am against War, I am against Putin, I am Homeless, Please Help me”.
On Monday, Odisha DGP S K Bansal had said the probe into the recent death of two Russian nationals at a hotel in Rayagada is being conducted with an “open mind” and “no evidence of any foul play” has been found so far.
There is “no evidence of any foul play so far” behind the death of the two Russians, the DGP said.
“Till now, we have not found anything suspicious into the incident The investigation is being conducted with an open mind,” he said on Sunday.
Sleuths of the CID has also collected the burnt remnants of Antov and Bidenov from the cremation ground near Rayagada, which will be sent for forensic examination, according to an official statement.
The post-mortem report of the Russian MP indicated that he died of internal injury after a fall, while that of Bidenov pointed to a heart attack as the cause of death, police said.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice on Monday to the Rayagada SP seeking an Action Taken Report (ATR) within four weeks.
The order was based a petition filed by human rights activist Rabindra Kumar Mishra of Berhampur town.
The human rights body said the ATR should be submitted within four weeks from the date of receiving the letter, which was issued on Friday.
Mishra told reporters in Berhampur that he requested the commission to look into the matter considering the sensitivity of the issue involving foreign nationals.
