London, Aug 24, 2019-
An Indian-origin Briton died in a fight at a Thai hotel after telling another guest to keep the noise down as his wife and son tried to sleep, his family has said.
Amitpal Singh Bajaj, 34, from London, complained about noise from the next room at the five-star Centara Grand Hotel in Phuket, the BBC reported on Saturday.
His family claimed that a man forced his way into their room via the balcony on Wednesday and strangled Bajaj.
In a statement on Friday, Bajaj’s wife Bandhna Kaur Bajaj said: “My husband sacrificed his life to save my son’s life and mine. He will always be our hero.”
She told how the attacker “barged” into their room naked and “just started charging at my husband”.
“My husband tried to block the man and move me and my (two-year-old) son away. As the man was kicking, punching and just, beating him up, my husband told me to please leave and save our son,” she added in her statement.
An ambulance and police then arrived at the hotel, in the Karon part of the city, and took Amitpal to thr Patong Hospital where he was confirmed dead.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry confirmed that a Norwegian citizen has been arrested in Thailand and is being provided consular assistance.
Meanwhile, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed the incident.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
Amitpal Singh Bajaj, 34, complained after hearing rowdy noises coming from the room next door while he and his wife and young child were trying to sleep in in Phuket, Thailand.
The family asked the hotel staff to intervene after the noise continued for two hours in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Security guards visited the room of Roger Bullman, 53, from Norway, but the noise is said to have became worse – with the Norwegian singing on the balcony.
Many news media reported that Amitpal Singh Bajaj was allegedly choked to death in a hotel fight after telling a fellow guest to keep the noise down.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF BANDHNA KAUR BAJAJ WIFE OF DECEASED AMITPAL SINGH BAJAJ
In the early hours (0000 hours) of 21st August 2019, Mr Amitpal Singh Bajaj, his wife, Ms Bandhna Kaur Bajaj, and their 2-year old son, Veer Singh, were sleeping in their hotel room (Room 345) at the Centara Grand Hotel in Karon, Phuket, when they heard loud noises from the adjoining room (Room 344).
The noises woke Ms Bandhna up as they were loud and she also heard screaming of a woman and voices of a man. The thought did come to her that it could be a domestic issue and, although she was shaken up and concerned, she went back to sleep as they were leaving next morning and, with their young son with them, they did not want any confrontation.
Close to 4am, loud noises and banging started coming from their folding panel balcony door, which separated both rooms. Terrified, Ms Bandhna woke her husband up who confirmed that someone was trying to knock open the balcony door. He told her to call security, and she called the hotel reception desk to ask for urgent security help.
That was the first call for help she made. Security however did not arrive as the banging on the door grew more ferocious and so she called again for help. Almost as soon as the call ended, a fully-naked big-built Caucasian man, who we now know to be the accused – 53 year old Norwegian man Roger Bullman – barged in through the balcony door and stormed aggressively towards Mr Amitpal. This was the first time they had ever seen Mr Bullman.
“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”!”
Carrying her baby, Ms Bandhna dashed out of the hotel room and towards the lift, looking for help. Mr Bullman was at this point shouting out to her asking her where she was going. As she turned around to look, she saw her husband fall to the ground in the corridor outside the hotel room door.
She took the exit staircase and ran down a few flights of stairs to the ground floor as Mr Bullman was still shouting after her. She found a tree, amidst the bushes in a dark area near the hotel spa, and hid there, fearful, with her son in her arms. “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.” On a further call to the hotel reception, she found help as a buggy arrived and Ms Bandhna, still clutching on to her young son, ran towards it asking the driver to take her to the hotel lobby. While she waited in the lobby, Ms Bandhna urged the reception to get someone to help her husband and to check if he was fine.
The ambulance and police subsequently arrived at the hotel lobby at around 4am and took Mr Amitpal to Patong hospital, where Ms Bandhna learnt about her husband’s death. “My husband sacrificed his life to save my son’s life and mine. He will always be our hero.”
