Chuwong always wore his safety belt, family insists
CONSTRUCTION tycoon Chuwong Saetang habitually wore the safety belt, which is making it difficult for his family to believe claims that he had died in a car crash because he had failed to put on his safety belt.
“He survived two car accidents before because of the safety belt. That’s why he always had it on, no matter if he was the driver or the passenger,” Chuwong’s elder sister Wanpen Tanathamsiri told a press conference yesterday.
Chuwong died on June 27 in what his friend Pol Lt-Colonel Banyin Tanpakorn a former deputy commerce minister and a former MP claims was an accidental car crash.
The family, however, raised doubts in light of the fact that Banyin survived the crash unscathed and that a huge volume of Chuwong’s shares were transferred to two women just days before his death without his family’s prior knowledge.
Wanpen yesterday quoted an employee of Chuwong’s company as saying that he saw his late boss put on the safety belt before Banyin’s car headed out of the firm’s compound.
Anek Kamchum, who represents Chuwong’s family, told the same press conference yesterday that he too had noticed the dubious share transfers after Chuwong died.
“That’s why I asked his family about these transfers,” he said.
The two women who received nearly Bt300 million worth of shares from Chuwong claimed to have had special ties with the tycoon. Kantana Siwathanapon, 26, told police that she and Chuwong were romantically involved and that he had voluntarily transferred his shares to her.
Kantana’s lawyer, Seksan Senachu, yesterday called on the Central Investigation Bureau’s chief Maj General Akaradej Pimonsri to unfreeze her shares.
“This freezing has caused her the financial damages of over Bt16 million already,” Seksan said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Maj-General Chanthep Sesawet said Banyin was close to both Kantana and the other recipient.
“But I don’t know how deep their relationships were,” he said.
At this point, Banyin only faces the charge of reckless driving that caused death. Relevant police officers will meet tomorrow to discuss Chuwong’s case and determine the cause of his death.
An informed source said investigators were preparing to conclude that Chuwong died in an accident, because there are no records of him and Banyin ever quarrelling.
