Highway police detained over kickbacks claim

Royal Thai Police deputy spokesman Maj-General Piyapan Pingmuang said the police officer, whose video clip allegedly accepting a bribe went viral on social media, was facing investigation on charges of setting up checkpoints without permission.

Highways Police Department commander Pol Maj-General Somchai Kaosamran said criminal and disciplinary charges would be pressed against Pol Lieutenant Thawat Umsupap over kickback allegations by tomorrow. Thawat would be detained for seven days for violating the orders of his superiors and setting up a checkpoint without permission. Somchai said Thawat would be transferred out of the Highways Department and work in a department where he would not come into contact with the public.

Police would summon truck drivers, who may face charges of offering bribes to officers, and also the person who shot the video clip of the incident for investigation.

National police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda said he had ordered that every unit transfer officers allegedly linked with influential people involved in 16 offences.

He said that as of now, the list included almost 100 who would be transferred to inactive posts.

The 16 offences include illegal money lending; bid collusion; illegal fee collection from motorcycle taxis; entertainment and service business establishments violating laws; illegal goods (including gasoline) traders; gambling-den operators; prostitution; migrant worker traffickers; duping people with faulty promises of jobs abroad; tourist exploitation; guns-for-hire businesses; illegal debt collection services; war weapons trade; encroachment on public land; bribe-taking on highways and public places; and drug trafficking.

He said the police officers who were involved in these offences would have the chance to return to their earlier posts if they come clean about their wrongdoings.

“We have to be fair to them too,’’ he said.

He said most police officers who were on the list were from provincial offices and not from central offices.

Police Region 7 Commissioner Pol Lt-General Chanthep Sesawet said he had endorsed an order on Tuesday transferring four police officers, including non-commissioned officers and deputy inspectors.

They face investigation over suspicion of taking kickbacks from entertainment venues, factories, shops and human trafficking in Kanchanaburi.

Meanwhile a Government House website provided information about the 16 offences in a graphic at, (http://www.thaigov.go.th/index.php/th/new-photos/infographic/infographic/infographic-72077). 

Government Bureau spokesman, director Nanthaigarn Swatdipakdi, said the media and production and creative teams had produced the graphic in response to the PM’s policy of capturing public attention with easy to understand messages in graphic form. The graphic has the headline “Reward Wanted” followed by a list of the 16 offences.