Six police dismissed for kidnap, ransom: Somyot

Pol General Somyot Poompan-moung, national police chief, said any police officer found taking bribes would be arrested and investigated by a special team from the central authority.
The six officers, who were stationed at Muang Udon Thani Police, allegedly joined three civilians in detaining a 50-year-old Laotian woman and her 14-year-old son on a bogus drug charge to demand a ransom of Bt2 million. The victim’s Laotian husband filed a complaint with Nong Khai police, who then held a sting operation to arrest the officers in Nong Khai province on Sunday.
Somyot said members of the public had complained for sometime about the allegedly inappropriate behaviour of the six officers in arresting drug suspects to gain assets in exchange for their release.
Somyot instructed the Provincial Police Region 4 to keep an eye on the officers until they had solid evidence to arrest them. As these six police officers were initially dismissed from the civil service, the investigation would extend to their supervisors, who would be punished if involved, the police chief said.
Pol Maj-General Chaiyat Saitin, Udon Thani police chief, confirmed that he set up a disciplinary committee to probe the six officers, who were dismissed from duty pending a probe. He said an initial report suggested the officers were involved in a drug arrest but then turned out to allegedly be involved in bribery in Nong Khai. So, police would investigate what happened first.