Expressed through graffiti and drawings, pictures and words on social media, a slain black leopard, a rare and protected species, has become a symbol of victims of the wealthy and powerful at the hands of the seemingly impotent justice system. It is used to remind people that the rich often have privileges to escape charges and jail while being able to keep their business empires intact.
Police have spent more than a month probing the wildlife poaching case involving construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta. The 63-year-old president of Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD) and three other suspects (two of whom are ITD employees) were arrested on the night of Feb 4 while they were camping in a prohibited area of the World Heritage Thungyai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary in Kanchanaburi.
Paritta Wangkiat is a columnist, Bangkok Post.
The carcass of the black leopard and its bullet-riddled pelt were found near their camping area, along with guns and ammunition, carcasses of Kalij pheasant and a barking deer. Park rangers said they found the tail of the leopard in a cooking pot at the camp site, prompting the public to suspect the men cooked and ate the animals.
Had police followed their standard procedure against poaching suspects in the past, this case should not have been complicated. In several previous cases when park rangers reported cases of wildlife poaching to police, the cases were immediately went to court and the suspects ended up in prison.
But the police have appeared to handle this particular case differently with twists and turns that have prompted concern over whether justice will be served. There has been speculation the tycoon will eventually walk free.
And he actually has. For now, Mr Premchai has become a free man. Two days after the arrest, Mr Premchai and the three other suspects were released on 150,000-baht bail each -- a small amount of money for such a powerful businessman whose company made 55 billion baht in revenue last year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission data.
Since then Mr Premchai has kept a low profile, distancing himself from the public spotlight and the media. But officials who have taken action against him have found themselves in trouble, one by one. Deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, who is in charge of the investigation, has created confusion in his reaction to the case.
First, chief of the Thungyai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary Wichien Chinnawong -- the man who arrested the ITD president and filed a complaint with the police -- was accused by the deputy national police chief of negligence for not collecting park entrance fees from the Premchai group.
Then Kanchana Nittaya, director of the wildlife conservation office, was accused of irregularly allowing the tycoon's group into the wildlife sanctuary. Both Mr Wichien and Ms Kanchana have been cleared of the offences. Evidence proves that they neither provided special assistance to Mr Premchai nor were aware of his group's plan to access the prohibited zone.
Later, trouble landed on the desk of a Thong Pha Phum police officer who accepted a complaint filed by a park official accusing Mr Premchai's group of animal cruelty.
According to Pol Gen Srivara, the animals killed in this case are not protected under the Prevention of Cruelty and Animal Welfare Provision Act because the law only applies to domestic animals. So, the policeman was placed on probation for not exercising sufficient caution in handling the complaint.
Later on, Mr Premchai's wife emerged into the spotlight. On Tuesday, a national park official filed a complaint with the police against her for allegedly possessing two pairs of tusks of African elephants found in their house during a police raid last month. Forty-three guns were also discovered in the residence.
Police say they are being cautious in every step of the investigation. But there has been a public outcry over the pace of the police probe into the case which has been slow and time-consuming.
Since the suspect is a powerful businessman, many people expressed their mistrust over the way police handled the case. If Mr Premchai were an ordinary man suspected of illegal hunting, his fate would have been very different now.
He might have been put in prison because he could not afford bail. Or he might have been taken to a press conference and branded a wrongdoer right after being arrested even though a court trial had not started.
That's what usually happens with many suspects.
Law enforcement officers usually charge and prosecute them based on similar pieces of evidence found in Mr Premchai's case such as animal carcasses and ammunition.
So it seems like the justice process treats Mr Premchai differently from the usual suspects under similar circumstances. His business empire is also well shielded even though his personal reputation was damaged by the black leopard death.
ITD, which has been rewarded many contracts of state-owned projects, is unlikely to be blacklisted by the government because the poaching case is seen as a matter of an individual that does not affect the company, according to Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam.
Should a company's good governance not be judged by the personal behaviour of its CEO or president?
ITD has won numerous construction contracts for state projects including the BTS Skytrain, Suvarnabhumi airport, ports and expressways. The company is likely to get bigger slices of pies from the current military government's development projects that emphasise the need for building infrastructure.
Since its establishment in 1958, ITD has become a regular winner of bids for government contracts. Mr Premchai has remained the president of the company even though he faces a crisis of reputation. He inherited the business from his father, ITD's co-founder Chaijudh Karnasuta, and holds the largest stake in the firm. His voice must be the most powerful of the company's executives.
ITD has been associated with many controversial projects including the Mae Moh coal mine's Phase 7 in Lampang, the Hongsa coal mine and the Nam Theun 2 hydropower plant in Laos. These are projects that were met with complaints by local communities over social and environmental impacts. In 2013, ITD faced a protest by a local community in Myanmar's Dawei district over compensation for their land confiscated to build the Kanchanaburi-Dawei road.
More recently, the company, with the Power Construction Corp of China, appeared to be the winner in the bid for the currently-suspended Krabi coal-fired power plant in 2016.
The black leopard's killing reflects the way things work here. It reminds people of the fact that privileges and opportunities are usually offered to the elite while the little people are left behind to face negative consequences. Whoever the killers are, many believe they can go hunting and not have to pay for the consequences.