Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police have filed another charge against the sacked police officer who is the former husband of accused serial poisoner Sararat “Aem” Rangsiwuthaporn.
Pol Col Anek Taosuparp, CSD deputy commander, said he went to Region 7 Provincial Police headquarters in Nakhon Pathom on Tuesday and laid the additional charge against Pol Lt Col Withoon Rangsiwuthaporn.
He was charged with helping a suspect avoid being penalised or to get a lighter penalty by damaging, destroying, concealing or taking away evidence of an alleged crime.
Pol Lt Col Withoon had earlier been charged with receiving stolen property, forgery and using forged official documents.
The additional charge was filed against him after investigators from Ban Pong police station in Ratchaburi province found evidence that after the death of Siriporn “Koy” Khanwong, 32, on April 14, Pol Lt Col Withoon and Ms Sararat went to visit her ex-husband’s parents in Sukhothai province, after the Songkran Festival.
Ms Sararat took a brandname bag and other property belonging to Siriporn with her to Sukhothai, intending to hide them. She later changed her mind and instead asked Pol Lt Col Withoon’s parents to send them to the officer’s house in Nakhon Pathom.
After receiving the items, Pol Lt Col Withoon took them to Tha Maka district in Kanchanaburi and gave them to Ms Sararat, instead of handing them to police investigating Siriporn’s death.
Ms Sararat then asked her sister-in-law to send the items to a woman called Ms Kaew in Cha-am district, Phetchaburi. Ms Kaew opened the parcel and suspected that the items sent to her might belong to Siriporn. She handed them over to police for examination.
This led to Pol Lt Col Withoon’s being slapped with the additional charge.
Ms Sararat, 36, dubbed “Aem Cyanide”, was arrested on April 25 at the government complex on Chaeng Watthana Road in Bangkok. Her arrest followed a complaint filed by the mother and elder sister of Siriporn.
Siriporn collapsed and died beside the Mae Klong River in Ban Pong district of Ratchaburi, where she had gone with Ms Sararat to release fish for merit-making on April 14. Cyanide was found in her body.
The list of Ms Sararat’s alleged victims has since continued to grow, with many extra charges being filed against her.