'Truth can never be concealed or suppressed forever, although it can be distorted temporarily. But sooner or later, it will emerge," according to an old saying.
Take the case of serial killer Sararat "Am Cyanide" Rangsiwutthiporn. From 2015 until April 2023, she poisoned 15 acquaintances with cyanide, and 14 of them died.
Among the dead are four members of a rotating savings and credit association.
None of the relatives of the victims nor the police suspected Sararat because she left no traces of her crime. Nor were most of the victims related to each other by blood.
No one suspected anything until the death of the 14th victim, Siriporn Chaiwong, in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi, when Sararat made the big mistake of stealing the victim's car and a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Siriporn's relatives reported her missing after Siriporn did not return home. The victim was later found dead near a river pier in Ban Pong.
Police checked the CCTV footage in the area and found the victim had been with a woman who looked like Sararat.
It was then that the truth started to emerge, and more spilt out when people who lost their loved ones, who were acquainted with Sararat, lodged complaints with the police.
Likewise, Room 1404 on the 14th floor of Police General Hospital (PGH), where former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was admitted for medical treatment for six months, had been a well-kept secret.
It was off-limits to the public and the media while the controversy over Thaksin's "feigned critical illness" raged on.
Last week, Thai Pakdee Party chairman Warong Dechgitvigrom, an anti-Thaksin hardliner, posted footage of the VIP room on social media.
The footage was not just an eye-opener about the luxurious state of Thaksin's accommodation on the 14th floor of the PGH.
It could also serve as crucial circumstantial evidence to challenge the Corrections Department's claim the room was a detention cell.
Moreover, the footage also confirms Room 1404 was not an intensive care unit for critically ill patients because it did not contain any emergency life-saving equipment.
In other words, the revelation implies Thaksin was not suffering from a life-threatening illness, as claimed by doctors at the PGH and the Corrections Department's hospital.
Or, he might have recovered after being treated there, in which case, according to the Corrections Department's regulation, he should have been sent back to the department's hospital for recuperation, not left at the PGH for up to six months.
Seen in this context, the footage itself is damaging to those who have staked their careers to help Thaksin be accommodated in a comfortable environment instead of spending his term behind bars.
It may have sent a shockwave through the PGH and the Corrections Department.
Nonetheless, Thaksin's helpers are now trying to save their skins. Two senior doctors at the PGH have asked Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin to review the Medical Council's ruling to suspend their medical licences temporarily.
Mr Somsak, in his capacity as a special chairman of the Medical Council, can veto the council's ruling.
But he must present credible evidence to prove Thaksin was critically sick and the two senior doctors at the PGH had performed their duties honestly.
But Thaksin's trouble is not over yet. He has been keeping an unusually low profile in public after his request for a court's permission to leave for Qatar, hoping for a chance meeting with US President Donald Trump to discuss the tariff issue, was rejected.
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Office has set a hearing on June 13 to find out if the jail sentence imposed on Thaksin for three corruption convictions had been correctly executed by the department or not.
The former prime minister, representatives of the Anti-Corruption Commission and the department, the warden of Bangkok Remand Prison and the chief doctor at PGH will be required to attend. Summonses are expected to be issued by the court soon.
Some legal experts, however, have contended the court has no right to hold the inquiry, noting the three corruption cases against Thaksin are already over, and Thaksin had already served his term, albeit in the comfort zone of the PGH.
They claimed that the trial of the cases constituted a "double jeopardy".
That may be a misinterpretation of the court's inquiry. The court will not open a new trial of the three corruption cases that were already over.
In fact, the court has opened an inquiry to find out if its conviction verdict against the former prime minister was actually executed by the department or not, which is a different case and does not constitute a "double jeopardy".
If the court rules that its imprisonment verdicts -- eight years for the three cases, which were reduced to one year by a royal pardon -- were not executed, Thaksin may have to be returned to prison to serve a one-year term.
Others who helped him to escape the prison term may face the axe as well for contempt of court.
Let us wait and see how the two cases -- Thaksin's sickness and Thaksin's imprisonment -- will transpire. It will be heart-wrenching for the former prime minister and the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.