Raid on motel room caught on camera
PUBLISHED : 19 Jul 2023 at 04:58
Kalasin: A police investigation has been launched into an allegation that five policemen in this northeastern province abducted a woman, falsely accused her of drug possession and extorted 50,000 baht from her in exchange for her release.
Pol Maj Gen Phuttiphong Musikul, deputy commander of Provincial Police Region 4, said on Tuesday the incident occurred in an area under the jurisdiction of Muang police station in Kalasin, and the station commander has reported it to the regional police office.
The allegation was backed up by a video taken surreptitiously with a mobile phone, confirmed Pol Maj Gen Phuttiphong. All five men in the video are officers attached to various units in Kalasin province. A fact-finding investigation has been launched to look into disciplinary and criminal action against the men.
“If the allegations are confirmed, they will be punished,” Pol Maj Gen Phuttiphong said.
The probe was launched after the woman posted on the Khaosan Palanchai Facebook page seeking help, and TV Channel 8 then sent a news team to interview her.
The woman, whose name was withheld, alleged that five men arrived at the resort in Muang district where she was staying alone around 6.20pm on July 4. The men claimed to be members of a police task force in Kalasin. They searched her room but found nothing illegal but did find 20,000 baht in cash. They then took her from the room and asked her to point at some white tissue paper left under a tree outside the room, but she refused, the woman said.
She was then forcibly taken to their vehicle, and they drove around Muang district. On the way, they tried to persuade her to confess that she owned the tissue paper containing illicit drugs. She said that she refused. The woman said the five men demanded 50,000 baht in exchange for her release.
She said she was afraid of being falsely charged with drug offences, so she contacted her younger brother and borrowed 30,000 baht from him, which she then gave to the men along with the 20,000 baht they had seized from her room.
She had managed to video what happened during the police raid on her room without them noticing.
Pol Lt Gen Yanyong Vejosot, chief of Provincial Police Region 4, ordered Kalasin police chief Pol Maj Gen Suwan Chiewnawinthawat to explain the incident after the video was aired on TV news.