Officials face probe in ‘furious aunties’ case

BANGKOK GOVERNOR Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang plans to set up a committee to consider disciplinary action against six officials linked to five illegal markets near the house of the so-called “furious aunties” in Bangkok’s Prawet district.
The investigation should conclude in one week. 

The “furious aunties” case refers to the attack by Rattanachat Seangyoktrakan, 61, and Ranee Saengyoktrakan, 57, using an axe and a shovel on a pickup blocking their residence’s gate. This action has focused public attention on their previous complaints about illegal markets in their neighbourhood.
Aswin’s comments yesterday followed news reports that a Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) fact-finding investigation led by Bangkok Metropolitan Councillor Niran Praditkul had found that all five markets were illegal because they lacked market permits. 
Aswin said he had not yet received a formal report of the findings, but once he did he would set up a committee to consider whether the officials had failed to do their duty regarding the markets.
While the construction permits for the markets were legal, except for the Talad Rom Leung weekend market, they did not have permits to operate as markets, Niran said. He said at least six current and retired officials from 2008 until the present had allegedly been linked to markets, including four Prawet district directors – three retirees Somchai Chatsakulpen, Achara Horsombat and Narong Jaemfa, as well as the current district chief Thanasit Metphanmuang. 
Former BMA Department of Public Works directors, Jumpol Sampaopol, who held the office from 2009 to 2011, and Winai Limsakul, from 2011 to 2013, were also implicated. Jumpol had resigned to serve as a deputy governor during former Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paripatra’s administration. The district office is in charge of market registrations and permits, while the Department of Public Works is responsible for construction permits.
The committee also found that the markets had been the subject of resident’s complaints, resulting in court-ordered fines for the market owners, but officials had also allegedly failed to implement appropriate fines, Niran said.
Aswin also said the Central Administrative Court would next week summon a Land Department official for questioning about the housing estate area and whether it was zoned exclusively as residential, in connection with the ongoing lawsuit in which Rattanachat cited the Land Development Act to challenge the markets’ legitimacy. 
Meanwhile, the sisters heard charges of property damage, making threats and carrying weapons in public at Prawet district police station yesterday.
The sisters have filed their own complaint against the pickup’s driver, Ratchanikorn Lertwasana, 37, accusing her of annoying or bullying them in public and causing trouble. 
That charge, which is punishable by a maximum jail term of one month, a Bt10,000 fine or both, is often brought together with the traffic charge of parking to block a public route, for which police have fined Ratchanikorn Bt500 in connection with the case.
The two sisters’ axe and shovel assault on the pickup was recorded on video and uploaded to social media, eliciting a mixed reaction online. When the clips went viral, widespread initial condemnation of the attack changed to sympathy for what the family had to endure as a result of illegal markets near their home.