Indian police have formed a crime team to investigate the death of one of Russia's richest politicians at an Indian hotel.
Pavel Antov founded Russian sausage company Vladimir Standard and was a member of parliament in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow.
He was travelling in Odisha with a group of three other Russians when one of them, Vladimir Budanov, died of a heart problem last week, according to local police.
Mr Antov, 65, then died at the weekend when Odisha police say he fell from the hotel's terrace.
Odisha police initially said that Mr Budanov had suffered a stroke and his friend died because he "was depressed after his death and he too died".
However, police have now confirmed to the ABC that they have launched a criminal investigation into the incident.
"A crime branch team, consisting of five officers, has been formed," an Odisha Police spokesman told the ABC.
"The team has [questioned] their interpreter … who was accompanying them and guiding them during their tour in Odisha, India.
"The team has also [questioned] the driver … who was driving the car during their Odisha tour."
Police say they have also collected medical and other documents, photographs, passports and documents relating to the pair's travel in India.
Officers are also speaking to a Russian couple who were travelling with Mr Antov and they have been moved to crime investigation headquarters in the Odisha city of Cuttack.
A post-mortem of Mr Antov's body reportedly shows he died of severe internal injuries.
Indian politician questions cremation of bodies
Mr Antov is not the first Russian tycoon to die this year after reportedly criticising the Ukraine invasion.
In June, a status on Mr Antov's WhatsApp account said: "It's extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror," in reference to the shelling of a suburban district of Kyiv that left a man dead and his family injured.
The message was deleted and Mr Antov later posted on Russian social media that it was shared in error, saying he was a "patriot of my country" and backed the war.
Permission had been given through the Russian embassy for both men's bodies to be cremated in India, according to senior Odisha police officer, Vivekanand Sharma.
Prominent Indian opposition politician and lawyer Manish Tewari says he hopes the investigation is impartial and provides a "logical conclusion".
"What is extremely mysterious, if not enigmatic, is that two Christian gentleman have been cremated," he said.
"I think the fact that, for whatever reason, it was decided that they be cremated in India, rather than the bodies being repatriated back home.
"Well, who took that decision? Under what circumstances … was that decision taken?"
Mr Tewari has previously called for India to support a UN vote to condemn the Ukraine war.
Mr Antov was a member of the United Russia party, which is a strong supporter of Vladimir Putin and was formerly headed by the president.
The Russian counsel-general in nearby Kolkata, Alexey Idamkin, has told Russian state media that Indian authorities did not see a "criminal element in these tragic events".
Mr Antov was found dead at the Hotel Sai International, a three-star property in Odisha.
A string of mysterious Russian deaths
In 2022, several Russian businessmen have died in unusual circumstances, many linked to suicide or unexplained circumstances.
Some were critics of Mr Putin's invasion of Ukraine, raising speculation that they were killed.
However, there is still no hard evidence to suggest the deaths are connected.
Last week, a major Russian shipyard specialising in building submarines announced that its general director, Alexander Buzakov, had died "suddenly".
No more details were given.
Oligarch and chairman of Russian oil company Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, died in September after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, according to Reuters.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the board of Lukoil called the conflict a tragedy and called for it to end as soon as possible.
Russian state media TASS reported the death as a suicide.
"If you look at the facts, which are available in the public space, they do seem to suggest that people who have been critics of the Ukrainian war have died under rather mysterious circumstances," Mr Tewari said.
"Therefore, under those circumstances, I think what has happened in Odisha does merit a very, very thorough and completely impartial investigation."
