Van seen on Surat Thani video footage

Police are focusing their investigation into the disappearance of tycoon and government critic Ekkayuth Anchanbutr on the South after his van appeared on closed-circuit video footage recorded in Surat Thani.

The video shows the black van with the Bangkok licence plate number HP 9304 passing through Surat Thani’s Ban Na Doem district at 10.30pm on Sunday, Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Pol Lt-General Kamronwit Thoopkrachang said at a press conference yesterday.

Kamronwit said police in Region 8 and Region 9 had been instructed to track the van, believing Ekkayuth might be in it. However, he could not confirm a report that police had found Ekkayuth’s driver and that he was being brought for interrogation.

There was still no sign of Ekkayuth himself, he said.

National Police chief Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew had earlier said that Ekkayuth’s driver Santiparp Pengduang had been found with Ekkayuth’s car in the southern province of Phatthalung. 

Adul said that police were working on two possible reasons for Ekkayuth’s disappearance: a personal or a business conflict. He said the latter motive was likely because Bt5 million had been withdrawn from the businessman’s account before he went missing.

Adul spoke before attending a mobile Cabinet meeting in Kamphaeng Phet yesterday morning.

Kamronwit said several teams of investigators have been dispatched to comb the area toward which the van appeared to be heading.

He urged the media not to create public confusion with their reporting on Ekkayuth. He admitted that police had not been able to solve Ekkayuth’s disappearance because they have to wait for detection and test results.

Kamronwit said he had instructed investigators to check why the hard disk storing footage captured by security cameras at Ekkayuth’s house had been removed.

He said investigators were questioning witnesses over reports that Ekkayuth handed over money or cheques at Suvarnabhumi Airport.

He declined to respond to a comment by Ekkayuth’s lawyer that the latter’s disappearance has to do with a libel suit Ekkayuth filed against Kamronwit. “I do not want to react to his comments because it is his assumption. Police have a duty to resolve the case. I also do not want to touch on [possible] political motivations,’’ he said.

Investigators have found that security cameras on Soi Sudjai-uthit recorded a video clip of Ekkayuth’s van at 11pm on Thursday.

They have also found three cheques signed by Ekkayuth on June 7: a Siam Commercial Bank cheque worth Bt5 million, a Bank of Ayudhaya cheque worth Bt1.7 million (which was endorsed with the wrong year) and a Bank of Ayudhaya cheque worth Bt1.8 million.

Kamronwit said his bureau and the Crime Suppression Division had found that Santiparp had been arrested earlier on snatch-and-run charges but attorneys had decided to drop the case. He had also faced extortion allegations.

Wang Thonglang Police station superintendent Colonel Sanhakit Bamrungsuksawat yesterday led a team of investigators to examine Ekkayuth’s house, which is also the office of Thai Insider Co Ltd, in Town in Town Village, Bangkok. The officers looked into documents detailing the routes of his money transfers as well as the fingerprints on the closed-circuit camera.

Ekkayuth’s 33-year-old son Kongkarun Sriprasan said he had no clue as to why his father was missing. He only cared to know that his father was safe, rather than the motivation, at the moment.

Meanwhile, Ekkayuth’s lawyer Suwat Apaipak said he doubted Ekkayuth’s absence was related to the fact that he recently fired three employees from his company, one of whom had a personal relationship with Santiparp. 

Suwat said the driver was not likely to have been able to abduct Ekkayuth by himself. But if he was abducted, the people who did so must have had close knowledge of legal and investigation processes, as they had covered their tracks well, he said.