Deputy national police chief, Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn, says he does not want revenge on several senior officers for their actions against him, despite his holding secret information that he says could spell their doom.
"I don't want to get revenge. I have plenty of information. If I expose it, everyone at the Royal Thai Police [RTP] is doomed.
"But I will not reveal it yet. I still want to protect the [police] force," he said during a television show on Channel 9 on Wednesday.
Pol Gen Surachate was speaking after a high-profile search of his rented house in Bangkok on Monday as part of a probe into online gambling websites. The search, approved by higher-ups in the Royal Thai Police, was based on financial transactions related to gambling websites uncovered earlier.
The raid on Pol Gen Surachate's rented house in Bangkok was part of an operation code-named "Big Cleaning Day," which targeted 30 properties in Bangkok and five provinces -- Phetchaburi, Samut Prakan, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Saraburi.
Several of the other houses belonged to police officers close to Pol Gen Surachate, and they are alleged to be involved in online gambling sites operating in Laos with about one billion baht in circulation.
Pol Gen Surachate said on Wednesday he instructed his lawyer, Ananchai Chaidej, to file a complaint with Southern Bangkok's Criminal Court, alleging contempt of court in the police application for an arrest warrant for eight of his subordinates.
He said investigators who sought the arrest warrant failed to identify their ranks. If investigators had done so, the court would not have approved the arrest warrant, but would have issued a summons instead, Pol Gen Surachate said. He thought it was inappropriate that the police were issued with warrants.
Previously, Pol Gen Surachate filed a complaint with the Criminal Court alleging contempt of court in the police application for a warrant that allowed them to search five of his rented houses.
He said the application concealed facts as it failed to inform the court that he occupied the houses, and the large armed force used conducted the searches in a way that tarnished his reputation. "If the court had known they were my houses, it would have acted fairly because I do not face prosecution," Pol Gen Surachate said.
However, he on Wednesday admitted the five houses actually belonged to a businessman based in Udon Thani, known as "Taem". He rented the houses from him and let his subordinates stay in two of them.
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