Six Bangkok Cops were yesterday transferred to inactive posts and are the subjects of a fact-finding probe over allegations that they raided the home of a 49-year-old food vendor and allegedly imposed a bogus Bt50,000 charge in exchange for his freedom on the night of August 10.
Somtam spicy salad vendor Sakchai Naen-udon had on August 13 initially filed a report, but not an official complaint, about the incident with the police. On September 10, he filed a complaint, along with additional information, at the Phayathai precinct.
Sakchai said that while he was selling somtam at his stall on the night of August 10, his 30-year-old daughter came crying to tell him that some 10 plain-clothes policemen had raided their house.
He rushed to his rented home and asked to see a search warrant, but the officers refused to show it to him, he said. Instead, they claimed to have found an unspecified amount of crystal methamphetamine or “ice” – which they also did not show him – and escorted his daughter away.
The police who later came to his house accused him of helping a fugitive flee and escorted him back to their office, where they told him that he was wanted in an extortion case and must pay a Bt50,000 bail – which he at the time did for fear of jail and out of ignorance about the law, he said.
Feeling he had been subjected to injustice, Sakchai filed a report at the Phayathai precinct about this incident, which he claimed involved a police Sergeant-Major who had a dispute with his son years ago. The arresting team’s Inspector showed up to return the Bt50,000 and asked him to let this be a bygone, he said.
Sakchai said he initially wanted to let the incident go quietly, but changed his mind after a later getting a phone call from a policeman asking him if he wasn’t afraid to die. He said he was now determined to press charges.
Metropolitan Police Division 1 chief Pol Maj-General Zenith Samransamruadkit initially signed a September 10 order for the immediate transfer of seven accused officers to inactive positions at the Metropolitan Police Division 1 operations centre pending the results of a 15-day probe. Initially accused were three commissioned officers (one police Major and two police Captains) and four constable officers (three police Sergeant-Majors and one police Corporal).
However Zenith on Wednesday cancelled the transfer of the accused police Corporal on grounds of misidentification after determining he had not been involved despite the food vendor identifying him.
