Thong Lor police criticised over Red Bull case
THE ACTING metropolitan police chief yesterday criticised a team of Thong Lor police for possibly intentionally delaying the investigation into the four-year-old hit-and-run case against the grandson of late Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya, adding that
“The incident took place in 2012 and by now one of the charges has already passed the statute of limitations. How come the investigation team let this happen? During this time, the suspect could go abroad and not face trial,” Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathaworn said yesterday.
However, he said any decision to re-open the case against Vorayuth Yoovidhya rested with public prosecutors.
Vorayuth has been accused of hitting and killing 47-year-old Pol Snr Sgt-Major Wichean Klinprasert with his Ferrari and dragging his body down a Bangkok street in a notorious early-morning accident in September 2012. Vorayuth then allegedly fled the scene by driving to his house near scene in the Thong Lor area.
Police followed him to his house and demanded that he surrender. However he refused and remained inside until senior police arrived at the scene with an arrest warrant.
Sanit said Thong Lor police had delayed submitting an investigation report to public prosecutors, which resulted in one of the four charges pressed against Vorayuth lapsing under the statute of limitations.
He said police had not conducted a thorough investigation and had also believed a witness for Vorayuth who said he was not under the influence of alcohol at the time. So, they charged him with reckless driving causing death and refusing to stop to help the victim, instead of drunk driving.
Sanit refused to say if police had been lenient with the wealthy heir of the Red Bull founder. He said the law stipulated that police must speedily initiate an investigation, but this case they took four months to wrap up the case.
He added that police had dropped the charge of exceeding the speed limit, in addition to that of drunk driving.
“The specialists proved that the suspect was speeding but the police believed witnesses who said the opposite. Does this show the police carry out their duty in an up-front manner? “The law must protect both the rich and the poor. We must have equality for the country to be peaceful,’’ Sanit said.
He said action would be taken against police who were caught in disciplinary and criminal offences.
Sanit said police had been instructed to find out who brought the family driver, who made a false statement claiming he was the driver who hit Wichien.“We must probe who ordered him to make that ‘confession’. That person must face prosecution for being a mastermind.’’
The family driver, however, later reversed his testimony amid a rowdy protest by Wichean’s fellow officers at the station.
Deputy police spokesman Maj-General Songpol Wattanachai said police would pursue the two original charges. The charge of reckless driving causing death must be filed within 15 years of the event. The crime carries a sentence of up to 10 years jail.
Songpol said police had submitted investigation reports to public prosecutors and alerted Vorayuth, who now lives overseas, about the charges.
He said police could re-issue an arrest warrant for Vorayuth even though he has been released on bail. Police can also fine him for failing to comply with bail conditions.
The case was delayed, he said, because the suspect said he was working overseas and had postponed giving testimony.
Pol Colonel Wiradol Tabtimdee, the investigator in charge of Vorayuth’s case, said his team submitted a report on the accident to public prosecutors in February 2013, pressing four charges against him.
The justice system has come under severe criticism lately for leniency shown to wealthy people with political connections.
Police have been under pressure in other cases against wealthy drivers including the crash in Ayutthaya, in which Jenpop Weeraporn slammed his Mercedes Benz into a Ford sedan, killing two recently. He said police had Jenpop submit to a blood test |yesterday for substances that may have affected his driving.
