Chiang Mai: The deputy district chief of Chiang Dao district, who was summoned to answer charges for allegedly issuing a Thai ID card belonging to someone else to a Chinese woman, yesterday refused to give a statement to police, saying he would only speak about the case in court.
Phoemkiat Devahastin na Ayudhya, the deputy district chief, yesterday answered the charges, although he declined to give a statement to police probing the fake ID card case, said a source.
The case came to light when the Chinese woman, who was identified only by the name on her Thai ID card as Alisara Supphasiribandit, filed a complaint with the police recently about the abduction of her boyfriend, Ren Haibo, said the source.
The boyfriend was abducted in Pattaya, and his abductors demanded a ransom of 800,000 baht, according to the woman who claimed to be Ms Alisara. However, as she did not sound like a native Thai when she spoke to the police, investigators suspected something was amiss with how she came to hold a Thai citizenship card, said the source.
The police then sourced a picture of the Thai parents of the real Ms Alisara kept in the citizenship database system and showed it to the woman who did not recognise them. That was when the investigation into this fake ID card case began, said the source.
Mr Phoemkiat had allegedly signed the approval for her ID card, the source said, along with several others who certified it and are now considered suspects.