The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has vowed to pursue legal action against more suspects in a growing scandal involving land title deeds despite the prime suspect, who was a land official in Phangnga, dying while in DSI custody.
Thawatchai Anukul's untimely demise automatically ended the criminal case but other suspects are still being investigated, Pol Lt Col Prawut Wongsrinil, a deputy DSI chief, said yesterday.
The Criminal Court ruled last Friday that Thawatchai died of suffocation and a ruptured liver after he was struck by a blunt object on Aug 29 last year while in DSI custody.
He died shortly afterward at a nearby hospital, the DSI said, adding that he was believed to have attempted suicide using his socks and a door hinge. The court did not indicate who was responsible for his death.
Following the ruling, Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathavorn, chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, ordered a 30-day probe to determine the cause of death and clarify the surrounding details. The DSI will investigate with the Thung Song Hong district police.
Efforts to annul any illegally bestowed land title deeds will also continue, Pol Lt Col Prawut said.
As the investigation concerns two plots of land it will be subdivided into two cases, he said.
The first case involves a 7-rai plot on La Yan Beach in Sirinat National Park. One of two suspects has confessed and been given a two-year prison sentence, he said.
The other case, which involves a plot of land in the vicinity of Le Phang Beach, should wrap up next month after the final witness is processed, he added. It is not in the same national park.
The two beachfront plots have a combined value of 970 million baht, Pol Lt Col Prawut said.
Thawatchai has also been implicated in the unlawful issuing of title deeds for another four plots of land that have since been divided into over 1,000 smaller plots, he said.
In another investigation into suspected land encroachment, business tycoon Rat Osathanugrah met Pol Maj Montri Boonyayothin, chief of the DSI's consumer and environment protection office, yesterday.
Mr Rat, represented by his lawyer Phisit Iam-sa-ard, was asked to explain his ownership of two luxury vacation houses on a hilltop area. The DSI claims the area belongs to Pa Khwan To La and Pa Laem Sam national forest reserve in Takua Pa district of Phangnga.
The DSI is expanding its probe to cover a house nearby that belongs to Boonchai Bencharongkul, another business tycoon, Pol Lt Col Prawut said.
"After they question Mr Rat the investigators will set a date with Mr Boonchai," he said.
Mr Boonchai has transferred ownership rights to the 4-rai hilltop plot to his wife.
Pol Lt Col Prawut said it is illegal for anyone to own a plot of land on a gradient exceeding 35 degrees.
Mr Phisit said his client acquired the plot from Cap Phangnga Co in 1994. Both houses were approved by local authorities, he said.