Roger Bullman went on the run after he was given bail for the killing of IT consultant Amitpal Singh Bajaj in Phuket on August 21 (pictured: out on bail)
Interpol has launched a global hunt for the bodybuilder who choked to death a British father in a Thai hotel then fled the country.
Roger Bullman went on the run after he was given bail for the killing of IT consultant Amitpal Singh Bajaj in Phuket on August 21.
Interpol issuing a warning to find the ‘dangerous’ 6ft 2in Norwegian bodybuilder makes a mockery of Thai prosecutors’ decision to give him bail in the first place.
Bullman told detectives he strangled Mr Bajaj after breaking into his hotel suite where he was sleeping with his wife and their young son.
Yet despite his confession to a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years for manslaughter, police let him go and he escaped Thailand and got over the border into Cambodia.
Now senior police sources in Phuket say the 54-year-old former bodyguard is in Vietnam and last Friday visited the Norway embassy in Hanoi where he reported that he had lost his passport and applied for a replacement.
Thai police have contacted the embassy warning that Bullman is a fugitive wanted for manslaughter.
Interpol has been brought in to help co-ordinate the hunt and to work with both Vietnamese and Thai police.
Mr Bajaj’s family slammed the Thai authorities’ decision to free Bullman only 12 hours after he throttled his victim and warned he could flee (pictured: Mr Bajaj with his wife Bandhna)
Mrs Bajaj said: ‘My husband is hero. He fought off this naked stranger who got into our room and saved the lives of me and our young son.’ (pictured: Mr Bajaj and his two-year-old son Veer)
An investigation is underway in Phuket to establish how Bullman escaped and what help he received.
Bullman absconded less than a day after MailOnline tracked him down to a beachside guest house at Karon, Phuket.
The ‘crazed’ killer told MailOnline that he was frightened of the potential long prison sentence he was facing.
He used his credit card for the last time on August 31 in Phuket, skipped bail and a court date and began his bid for freedom.
Mr Bajaj’s family slammed the Thai authorities’ decision to free Bullman only 12 hours after he throttled his victim and warned he could flee.
In a statement they said: ‘As the bereaved family of Amitpal Singh Bajaj, who was brutally strangled to death by Roger Bullman, we are angered, shocked, sad and bewildered by the extension of bail given to Bullman, who has failed to report to the courts as required.
‘We are bewildered as to why the authorities allowed a self confessed killer to roam the streets of Phuket unguarded, where he could potentially pose a lethal threat to other innocent parties.
Bullman was seen sunning himself and swimming in a hotel pool when he should have been in court to assess his bail days before he vanished
Bullman (pictured) had flown to Phuket from Oslo via Bangkok on August 17 on a two-week package holiday
‘Bullman would never have been given bail if this had happened in the UK. The police would have been more responsible,’ they added.
Mr Bajaj’s widow Bandhna told how Bullman burst into the hotel room she was staying in with her husband and toddler son Veer.
Mrs Bajaj, 34, said she and her husband heard a woman screaming and objects being thrown in Bullman’s adjoining hotel room into the early hours.
She grabbed her two-year-old son and ran for her life as Bullman, who had been drinking, smashed his way through a wooden partition separating their balconies at five-star Centara Grand Hotel.
Mrs Bajaj said: ‘Bullman suddenly appeared in our room. He was red in the face, fully naked, and charged quickly towards us while making animalistic sounds.
‘He was kicking and punching all the time. I said into the phone words to the effect of ‘he’s in … come quickly … send someone’.
Amitpal Singh Bajaj’s wife, Bhandha Kaur Bajaj, during an exclusive interview with MailOnline in Singapore
Security officials were twice called to ask Bullman, a bodyguard, to refrain from waking guests next to his room 344 at the plush Centara Grand Hotel in the holiday resort of Phuket (above)
She added: ‘My husband is hero. He fought off this naked stranger who got into our room and saved the lives of me and our young son.’
The Bajaj family are believed to be in contact with Norwegian officials in Hanoi to stop Bullman reaching Norway and help bring him back to Thailand.
‘We want justice. Bullman has to face the courts and be punished for killing Amiptal’ said a friend.
