The national police chief expects Indian authorities will soon arrest two Indian suspects in the murder of a Myanmar job seeker whose body was dismembered and hidden in a freezer in Bangkok's Bang Khunthian district over the weekend.
Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol, commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, said on Monday that police had requested the arrest of the Indian suspects via the Indian embassy in Thailand and the two countries had a mutual extradition treaty.
Police determined that both suspects left the country before the body of the Myanmar man was found on Sunday.
One of the suspects was a job broker who departed Thailand for Chennai on Saturday, the national police chief said.
Police were carefully checking recent arrivals using the government's visa-free programme for some countries.
Since the programme began, Indians have formed the biggest group of visitors. Police were looking for influential visitors who might be involved in human trafficking, money laundering and technology crime which were severe problems in India, Pol Gen Torsak said.
Meanwhile, Pol Lt Col Chakree Ditjai, interrogative inspector at the Tha Kham police station, said one of the murder suspects in the case was the 23-year-old Indian man, identified as Sundaravel Pragadeesh Kumar, who ran a job placement agency.
According to witnesses, six Myanmar men reached the Thai border on Jan 11. An Indian brought them from the border on Jan 12 and they arrived at the suspect's job placement company at Sakae Ngam 35/3 Road on Jan 14. The shophouse there was the scene of the crime.
Five of the Myanmar migrants received jobs and had to pay 7,000 baht each for the placement, but the victim was kept at the shophouse.
The two Indian men left the shophouse in a car at 6pm on Jan 19. They returned an hour later with a freezer. Both left the place again at 9pm the same day.
Pol Col Lertsak Khiansap, chief of the Thakham police station, said the Indian man's job placement agency was registered and he had stayed in the country for years.
Sundaravel Pragadeesh Kumar, a 23-year-old Indian national who owns a recruitment company, has been named as a murder suspect. (TV screen capture)