All about the third Russian who died in Odisha

The first few days of 2023 brought yet another eerie incident with the demise of a third Russian national in Odisha. This time, Sergey Milyakov, chief engineer of a bulk carrier named ‘Al Danah’, died in his own cabin which was discovered by the vessel’s Master in the early hours of January 3, who in turn reported it to the nearby port authority.

In the string of Russian businessmen deaths around the world, three Russians dying in mysterious circumstances subsequently in the Indian state of Odisha has once again resurfaced the enigma over Putin critics’ sudden deaths.

The latest one is identified as a Chief Engineer of Russian descent – Sergey Milyakov (51), who embarked on the MV (motor vessel) Al Danah from Singapore in September 2022.

The ship was traversing its route to Mumbai from the Chittagong Port of Bangladesh via Paradip, when Sergey’s body was discovered in his chamber by the ship captain at around 4 am, January 3. He then reported the same to the port authorities as per media reports.

The statements given to the police by some crew members suggest that he was ill while boarding the vessel.

Dissecting the passport credentials, his full name turns out to be ‘Sergey Nikolayevich Milyakov’, born in Murmansk Oblast of USSR on August 28, 1972.

To cross-verify, Sergey’s VK profile shows the same personal details while also revealing his educational qualifications and the institutions concerned.

Crew Data, a Russia-based ship jobs platform, contains the profiles of some of Al Danah’s crew members.

Soon after the authorities took notice of the incident, a post-mortem was conducted of Sergey’s body at the Kujang post-mortem centre. Also, viscera samples were collected for sending it to the State Forensic Science Laboratory (SFSL) based in Bhubaneswar.

Dr. Sagar Kumar Behera was the one to conduct the autopsy on Sergey’s body. Quoting Odisha-based news outlet, Ommcom News, “Dr 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 was caused due to his falling down, Dr Behera added.”

THE VESSEL IN QUESTION – AL DANAH

Meanwhile, the vessel in which Sergey was, Al Danah, also bears within it a ‘dubious’ past.

Going by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s Maritime mobile Access and Retrieval System (MARS) database, the company which exercises authority over the Marshall Islands flag vessel currently is ‘SAFEEN FEEDERS 9 LIMITED’ or Safeen Group, a UAE-based shipping organisation. Also, the vessel Al Danah’s former name turns out to be ‘Eratios’ in the ship station database.

There is more to the list of frequent name-changing, when searching by its IMO number, which in this case is 9614103. The Baltic Shipping website, which has still not updated the vessel’s name from ‘Eratios’ to ‘Al Danah’, unveils more of such past christening records taking the total number to six. Also, the bulk carrier’s former owner is cited as Jianghai Shipping Group based in Hong Kong, China.

As per 996co.com, the Jianghai Shipping Group holds a ‘dissolved’ status presently as a company. The organisation sent an application for deregistration on February 28, 2020.

To end with, the past two ‘unnatural’ deaths of Russian origin are also worth paying attention to, as both the bodies were cremated in a local crematorium which did not maintain any record, instead of burying in accordance to Christian rules. More so, the viscera of Pavel Antov were not preserved for conducting further investigation.

Out of the two former Russian nationals, Pavel Antov in June this year criticised the outcomes of Russia invading Ukraine in one of his VK posts. Later on, he retracted the same and apologised claiming it as a mishap soon after receiving a slew of criticism for his opinion.