UTHAI THANI - Authorities searched an old mine site spread over 500 rai claimed by former Chartthaipattana MP Chada Thaised in Ban Rai district on Thursday, believing it to be part of a forest reserve.
A team led by Dusadee Arayawut, deputy permanent secretary for justice, arrived at the site in tambon Huai Kha Khaeng on Thursday morning to examine the land and related documents there.
They examined documents for the right to use 11 blocks of land, Pol Col Dusadee said. They were issued, based on original occupancy documents held by local people.
According to the occupancy documents, the land had been used to farm rice since 1947. However, aerial photographs taken in 1953 and 1975 showed the whole area was pristine forest, the deputy permanent secretary for justice said.
Also, when the occupancy documents were converted to land use documents, the overall area increased from 152 rai to 515 rai.
The land use documents earlier belonged to a mining company, Muang Rae Laem Pichai. The land was sold to Mr Chada's son Farut in 2011.
Farut was killed in a road-rage shooting in Nakhon Ratchasima province in 2012, and the land documents transferred to Mr Chada in 2015. Mr Chada is seeking a mining licence for the land.
It is not the first time Mr Chada, regarded by police as an "influential person", has been hounded by the authorities recently.
Police searched the vehicle and bags of the former MP in Nong Khayang district of Uthai Thani late last month. He was travelling in a convoy of 8 cars after attending a funeral. His five bodyguards were found carrying pistols without a licence. One had a tablet of the drug ecstacy
Mr Chada and four of his men were allowed bail the next day with a 50,000 baht surety each. The man with the ecstacy was held in custody.
Suphareuk Eiam-laor, Mr Chada's, lawyer, said then that no guns or illegal items were found in his client's possession.
All of them were facing charges of conspiracy to carry firearms in public, he said.