The Russian ambassador to India, Denis Alipov, has bristled at questions raised on police actions in the aftermath of the mysterious deaths of two influential Russians in Odisha and “appreciated the investigation efforts by the Indian authorities”.

Pavel Antov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and one of the richest politicians in that country, was found in a pool of blood behind a hotel in Rayagada district last week, two days after his companion, Vladimir Bidenov, died of a suspected heart attack at Antov’s birthday party.

Referring to the police decision to cremate the bodies instead of burying them, Congress leader Manish Tewari had tweeted: “Two Christians cremated not buried! Hercule Poirot says burnt bodies tell no tales.” Reacting to this, Alipov tweeted on Friday:

“We appreciate the investigation efforts by the Indian authorities into the death of two Russian nationals in Odisha. Meanwhile it would be useful for some Hercule Poirot lovers to learn that cremation in Russia is as customary as burial. Idleness is the root of all evil.”

Several lawyers had on Thursday questioned the police’s decision not to preserve Antov’s viscera while preserving Bidenov’s.

The Russian consulate-general in Calcutta tweeted on Friday: “The nearest relatives of the deceased have clearly expressed their will to have bodies of Vladimir Bidenov and Pavel Antov cremated and their remains brought to Russia.”

The Odisha CID crime branch team probing the deaths on Friday met Rayagada district police officers and collected all the files relating to the initial investigation.

The team also interrogated the four doctors who had conducted the post-mortems of Antov and Bidenov. The team wanted to know why the viscera samples of Antov had not been preserved.

The doctors are said to have maintained that viscera samples are preserved only if foul play is suspected and Antov’s cause of death had been pinpointed as internal bleeding and haemorrhage.

Police sources said the crime branch was probing whether Antov jumped from the terrace of the hotel or he accidentally fell or was pushed.

The crime branch team is questioning the hotel staff, who had earlier claimed that Antov had been depressed following the death of his friend Bidenov.

The crime branch said in a media release: “The CIDCB team on the basis of examination has elicited some information about the family members of the deceased persons. The CID-CB is in the process of contacting them so as to cross-check the veracity of information collected during the examination of Panasenko Natalia and Turov Mikhail.”

Natalia and Mikhail, a Russian couple, had accompanied Antov and Bidenov to Rayagada. The statement added: “The CB team is continuing with the examination of the two Russian nationals namely Panasenko Natalia and Turov Mikhail and trying to ascertain the exact sequence of events that took place. Both the Russian tourists are fully cooperating with the enquiry.”

The team has also questioned their interpreter, Jitendra Singh.