MAE HONG SON - Local administrators claim the record of an interview with a teenaged prostitute who accused a senior government official of having sex with her was doctored to help the person.
The girl's mother was also told that video of the questioning was unavailable because officials forgot to plug in the recorder, and audio was not available for "technical" reasons.
The claims were made in a complaint filed on Friday by Boonyarit Nipawanit, head of a confederation of assistant district chiefs, who met with Col Somjetta Pakdeebundit, the deputy director of the Mae Hong Son branch of the Internal Security Operations Command.
Mr Boonyarit said the girl had referred to a high-level government official during questioning by legal officials but the name did not appear in their report.
Several reports have claimed that a governor of Mae Hong Son was a customer of the vice ring in which a senior police officer has also been implicated, but the current occupant of the office has denied the stories.
Mr Boonyarit said his team found that the complaint concerned a reception for a high-level government official who was assuming his position, held at a building tn the Hong Son Suksa School in Muang district of the northern province on Oct 1.
There had been a request for sex services, so procurers brought several girls there. Selected girls were then brought to many places, Mr Boonyarit said.
Pipat Ekphaphan, the governor of Uttaradit province and former governor of Mae Hong Son, wrote on his Facebook page that he did not buy sex services and he did not think his successor, Suebsak Iamwicharn, did so either.
Three people have been arrested so far. One of them was Pol Snr Sgt Maj Yutthachai Thongchart of the Nam Phieng Din police station in Mae Hong Son.
Already dismissed from police service, he and two other women suspected of being the procurers -- Piyawan Sukma and Piyatas Thiansuwan -- were charged with forcing girls aged between 15 and 18 into prostitution.
The 43-year-old mother, identified only as Namphet, of one alleged prostitute, said the minors controlled by the procurers' group, including her daughter, had owl tattoos on their chests.
The gang allegedly lured girls to take drugs. After they became addicted, they were forced to sell sex she said.