DSI to push for revocation of convicted Tan’s land
THE DEPARTMENT of Special Investigation (DSI) will request a copy of Wednesday’s court ruling which saw four men jailed - including Tan Thaugsuban, son of veteran politician Suthep Thaugsuban - for encroachment of forestland on Khao Phaeng mountain in Sur
Investigators will then ask the Land Department to revoke the land-ownership document of Tan’s remaining 14 rai there, the DSI said.
DSI environment case office chief Pol Lt-Colonel Prawut Wongsinil said yesterday that |the department had already revoked 70 rai land-ownership documents in Tan’s name, but insisted the Nor Sor 3 Kor title deed for another 14 rai (2.25 hectares) was legally issued.
On Wednesday, the Criminal Court sentenced both Tan and his authorised representative Banjerd Laopiyasakul to three years in jail. Pongchai Fathaweeporn and Samart Ruangsri, who sold the land, were handed five-year sentences.
Prawut said the department could either order revocation of the land-right document when the case was finalised or they could do it straightaway under Article 61 of the Land Code.
He also disclosed that the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission had since 2013 investigated state officials’ involvement in the Khao Phaeng land case, before DSI took up the probe a year later and concluded the case for public prosecutors to indict the suspects.
Prayut said the NACC was still investigating a number of other officials and a kamnan, or village headman.
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