A provincial court has approved an arrest warrant on charges of murder for a former Police General Hospital doctor suspected in at least three deaths.
The approval follows forensic confirmation that a body found at a Phetchaburi orchard owned by Pol Col Supat Laohawattana is that of a Myanmar labourer who had disappeared.
The warrant seeks to have Pol Col Supat charged with premeditated murder, removing a body and concealing the cause of death, said Pol Col Pichai Pokpong, chief of the Tha Mai Ruak police station in Tha Yang district of Phetchaburi.
The investigation team was busy trying to conclude reports recommending that prosecutors indict Pol Col Supat on three additional charges: theft, possessing stolen items, and illegally detaining people.
The reports are due to be submitted to prosecutors next week, said Pol Col Pichai.
Pol Col Supat, who is being detained in a jail in Petchaburi province, would be interrogated further.
Pol Col Pichai said the investigation team had produced watertight evidence which convinced the court to issue a warrant for Pol Col Supat's arrest.
The evidence included DNA test results, witness testimony, and handguns seized from the suspect's two houses in Phetchaburi and Nonthaburi, among others.
Scientists have confirmed that one of three skeletons exhumed from Pol Col Supat's orchard was that of Ta, formerly a worker at the orchard in Tha Yang district.
The DNA collected from the skeleton was found to have matched DNA samples collected from Ta's son and father.
A bullet hole was found in his skull. Police earlier quoted a witness as saying that the doctor had killed the worker and that he had another worker bury the man in his orchard.
Pol Col Supat has also been implicated in the disappearance of a married couple, Samart Noomjui and Orasa Kerdsap, from the orchard three years ago.
The doctor's wife, who is also in custody, has told police that she saw her husband in the orchard with the couple on the day they disappeared but that she did not know what happened after that.
A forensic official carefully removes one of the three skeletons found in Dr Supat’s orchard last month. TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD