Singapore—Fresh facts have emerged from a story reported earlier today concerning the death of the husband of a Singaporean woman while they were on vacation in Karon, Phuket.
Bandhna Kaur Bajaj, the wife of deceased British national Amitpal Singh Bajaj, released a statement concerning the events that led to her husband’s death, since initial reports had apparently been incomplete and misleading.
Ms Bandhna recounted that in the early morning hours of August 21, 2019, while she, her husband and their 2-year-old son Veer Singh were asleep in room 345 of the Centara Grand Hotel in Karon, Phuket, she was awakened by loud noises from the next room.
At first, Ms Bandhna chose to ignore the noise, believing it to be due to a domestic tussle.
But later, loud noises were heard again, this time coming from banging on the balcony door that separated the two rooms. Ms Bandhna awoke, and also roused her husband, who told her to call security as he confirmed that someone was trying to come in through the balcony door. According to Ms Bandhna, the hotel did not send someone in response to her first call for help.
The banging on their balcony door got louder, prompting Ms Bandhna to call for help again. As she was ending the call, a big, naked, Caucasian man forcibly entered the room via the balcony door and “stormed aggressively” in Mr Amitpal’s direction. The statement said that they had never seen the man, identified as the accused, Norwegian national Roger Bullman, age 53.
Ms Bandhna said in the statement, “He barged into our room. He just started charging at my husband. And we wanted to make an exit but he just came running, hitting my husband. And my husband tried to block the man and move me and my son away. As the man was kicking, punching and just, beating him up, my husband told me to please leave and save our son. He said, ‘Please just go, go, save Veer’!”
Ms Bandhna took their child and ran out of the room, with Mr Bullman calling after her. She said she turned and saw Mr Amitpal fall outside their hotel room door. She fled further from the scene, with Mr Bullam still shouting after her, and took refuge in some bushes with her child.
Ms Bandhna said, “I knew that my life was in danger and my baby’s life was in danger. So I hid under the tree and I used my phone again and I called the reception, and I asked the reception to please make sure someone attends to my husband. ‘Please give him some medical help, I’m very scared, I’ve escaped!’ I could still hear him screaming. I didn’t want to be attacked.”
She found someone to help her get to the hotel lobby, where she asked the reception to see how her husband was doing. After a short while, the ambulance and police arrived and Mr Amitpal was brought to Patong hospital, which is where Ms Bandhna found out that he had already passed away.
Concerning her husband’s death, she said in her statement, “My husband sacrificed his life to save my son’s life and mine. He will always be our hero.”
The media had earlier reported that Mr Amitpal had brought a steak knife into the bedroom of Mr Bullman, which Ms Bandhna’s story contradicts. The family also clarified that this is implausible, as they are vegetarians.
Sources close to the deceased’s family have asked questions as to why Ms Bandhna and Mr Amitpal did not receive immediate help from hotel security, and whether or not lifesaving procedures were done to prevent Mr Amitpal’s death since he reportedly still had a pulse when police arrived on the scene.
Other questions concerning why the hotel did nothing to detain the Norwegian after the incident occurred, as well as why it had no CCTV cameras in the corridor that could have provided evidence in the investigation.
The sources say that the hotel only had an elderly security guard, in whose witness account said that he saw “Mr Bullman grip the neck of Mr Amitpal in a chokehold outside room 346, even after Mr Amitpal was already unconscious. Mr. Bullman only let go of Mr Amitpal upon the request of the security guard.”
The hotel had also reportedly cleaned up the room where Ms Bandhna and Mr Amitpal had stayed, so that by the time the deceased’s father, Inderbir Bajaj, arrived from the UK, the room had been restored to normal, and evidence had been removed.
It had been reported by media earlier that Mr Bullman has paid bail and was set free in Phuket./ TISG
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