Four land-reform officials have been arrested for allegedly issuing title deeds for 600 rai (960,000 square metres) of land where a factory illegally released wastewater in Nakhon Ratchasima, according to police.
The arrests followed raids on 13 locations in Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima and Udon Thani on Thursday morning.
All the suspects worked at Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Land Reform Office. They have been identified as land reform official Akaradet Rianghin, 56; legal affairs official Wilailak Butda, 53; land surveyor Chokesak Maneechantra, 54; and 61-year-old retired land surveyor Preecha Praphanukul.
Pol Maj Gen Charoonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, said the suspects illegally issued agricultural land rights to 13 people who claimed to be farmers. However, most of the land was used as ponds to receive wastewater illegally discharged from a tapioca factory.
The land is in tambon Nong Bua Sala of Muang district in Nakhon Ratchasima. The Agricultural Land Reform Office is responsible for issuing land rights documents for farmers to cultivate deteriorating forest areas.
An investigation found that the issuance of land rights was rushed without official surveys and included false information. Some recipients were not farmers but factory workers.
Thanadol Suwannarit, an adviser to the agriculture minister who participated in the raid, said the land plots had been turned into foul-smelling ponds that received wastewater from the factory.
The plots were officially registered as algae-growing ponds, he added.
A suspect in the land reform case is arrested during a morning exercise at Suranaree University of Technology in Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima, on Thursday. (Photo: Prasit Tangprasert)
