PUBLISHED : 29 Oct 2023 at 04:00
Sa Kaeo Immigration Police are working with police in Cambodia to hunt down two Thais suspected of being involved in dumping the body of a Thai man found in a rice paddy field in Poi Pet, Cambodia.
Police officers in Poi Pet were alerted by residents about a body found inside a black bag near Koup Thom village about 30 kilometres from Thailand’s border province of Sa Kaeo on Tuesday.
After an investigation revealed the body was that of a Thai man, Sa Kaeo Immigration Police worked with Khlong Luek police on the probe.
They crossed the border to examine the body, identified on Wednesday as Padungkiat Kamwitah, 31, from Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai.
The villagers told police the bag was brought on a motor tricycle by two or three Thai-speaking men who dumped it into the pond near a rice field.
Sa Kaeo Immigration Police chief, Pol Col Roong Thongmon, said Cambodian police were tracking down the offenders and gathering evidence, especially CCTV footage. All escape routes were blocked to prevent the suspects from crossing the border to Thailand.
Meanwhile, investigation data from Cambodian police indicated the dead man might have been killed after he embezzled 700,000 baht from a Chinese man who owns a casino in Poi Pet where the man worked.
Padungkiat was beaten to death, before the Chinese owner ordered two Thai underlings to dump the body, he said.