The Mongkutwattana Hospital director has accused the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Royal Thai Police and the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) of concealing information related to the cause of death of land fraud suspect Thawatchai Anukul.
The hospital received Thawatchai from the DSI hours before he was pronounced dead.
Hospital director Rienthong Nanna demanded that he be part of the second autopsy on Thawatchai's body, seeing as the hospital has been "implicated" in the case.
Dr Rienthong yesterday took to his Facebook, saying that officials from the DSI telephoned the hospital to ask whether they could bring Thawatchai to his hospital in the early hours of Aug 30.
Thawatchai was brought to the hospital unconscious, with DSI officials claiming he had fainted.
Dr Rienthong said hospital staff spent three hours trying to resuscitate Thawatchai, who DSI officials later claimed during a press briefing on Aug 30 had committed suicide by hanging himself in his detention room.
Dr Rienthong said he only learned about the alleged hanging at the press briefing.
"We tried to save Thawatchai for more than three hours ... so why did the DSI conceal information [about the hanging]? They did not tell us anything," he said.
Dr Rienthong said that the hospital then sent Thawatchai's body to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Royal Thai Police for examination.
An autopsy conducted at the institute revealed on Aug 30 that Thawatchai suffered a lack of oxygen, abdominal haemorrhaging and a ruptured liver.
The doctor said Thawatchai's ribs were broken, a detail the autopsy failed to mention, he said.
"This has led me and the hospital's medical personnel who tried to save Thawatchai to doubt whether the ribs were actually broken. We do not believe there were several broken ribs as reported," Dr Rienthong.
He also questioned why the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Royal Thai Police failed to explain to Thawatchai's relatives the cause of the liver rupture right after the autopsy.
He referred to a remark by Thung Song Hong police chief Mana Phochuai who said on Thursday that authorities could not discard the possibility that Thawatchai was killed by others.
Pol Col Mana said yesterday police are investigating who would have a motive to kill Thawatchai. Police yesterday questioned Wanchai Promrak, a DSI senior investigator who spoke to Thawatchai before he died. Mr Wanchai gave police information on the fraudulent land deeds Tawatchai was allegedly involved in.
Meanwhile, Trairit Temahiwong, deputy director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science under the Justice Ministry, said the institute yesterday conducted a CT scan of the body to check the ribs, larynx and bones.
More than 9,000 images taken will be sent to the Justice Ministry's fact-finding panel on Tuesday, he said.