Video sparks probe of police, gambling den links
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Sai Mai police are heading for disciplinary action after a gambling den featuring topless models was found operating under their noses.
A video showing the partially nude girls among male bettors went viral and created a sensation in society.
Pol Colonel Harn Lertthaweewit, superintendent of the station in northern Bangkok, has been instructed to submit his reports on the incident and the results of an initial internal inquiry.
All commanders of the Metropolitan Police’s nine divisions must do the same, deputy Bangkok chief Pol Maj General Saroj Phromejaroen said yesterday.
The bald man seen in the video, thought to be the den’s owner, along with the two models will also face charges – the women for appearing partly nude in public, he said.
Saroj and Pol Lt General Winai Thongsong, commissioner of Metropolitan Police, were in a meeting to discuss the incident after they had dismissed media speculation that the parlour was a popular one located in Bangkok.
Police last Saturday searched a building in Sai Mai and found that “there were changes made to the building, which makes it slightly different from what was seen in the clips”.
“Police searched the building last Saturday not because we believe that it houses the den, but just to check the surroundings. We later found that a wall appears similar to what is seen in the clips, which leads us to believe that the building should be the den,” he said.
Many surveillance cameras were installed in the building but no recordings were uncovered. Police publicly disclosed the nicknames of the two models and said a man known as Chai Saimai, who is believed to run the den in the video, will also be questioned.
Nothing would be clear until the two models gave their statements on the details of the den’s operation. Their agent has been interviewed by police and they reportedly said they “modelled” in the den before the flooding.
However, police did not believe that because detectives had learned that the den was built after the flooding.
