Sad Story of fighting Police corruption

[PattayaMale]

Murdered corruption-busting highway policeman Chit Thongchit had many enemies — from politicians to his own colleagues — but investigators suspect four major cases are most likely connected with his death.

 

Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Chit’s body remains at Wat Pom Kaew in Samut Songkhram’s Muang district pending cremation; 50 police from the Crime Suppression Division, Ratchaburi and Region 7 are striving to fulfil the wish of his family members — they will not cremate him until investigators bring his killers to justice.

 

Chit, 54, fought more than 10 corruption cases against police and local and national politicians.

 

But four cases stand out as being most probably connected to his murder on Jan 15, CSD deputy commander Prayon Lasuea said.

 

‘‘From our field investigations, we realised that no policemen liked him because he tried to expose their extortion activities,’’ Pol Col Prayon said.

 

‘‘On the other hand, every villager loved him because he always lent them a hand every time they had problems with police.’’

 

Chit also locked horns with an academic and former Kanchanaburi politician who was allegedly cheating villagers in Ratchaburi and Phetchaburi provinces over land sales.

 

Investigators have not ruled out his most famous case 11 years ago when he was a member of the highway police unit.

 

In 1998, he revealed how his colleagues were collecting money from drivers of overweight trucks in exchange for letting them on the road.

 

He was also investigating the corrupt activities of a politician in Ratchaburi who owned a farm.

 

In another case, Chit filed a complaint about police in Prachuap Khiri Khan who had charged an innocent man with selling methamphetamine pills. This resulted in several senior and junior policemen being moved from the province.

 

This case is main focus of the investigation, Pol Col Prayon said.

 

Investigators questioned people possibly involved in the case. All have denied involvement in Chit’s killing.

 

Investigators are waiting for laboratory results undertaken by forensic experts who collected evidence from the crime scene.

 

The death of the policeman has gained a lot of media coverage due to his unrelenting fight against corruption.

 

A native of Bangkok, Chit gained a reputation for being an honest cop when his team on a special assignment arrested policemen involved in cigarette smuggling in Khao Yoi district, Phetchaburi, in December 1987.

The case came under the spotlight when he revealed that his commander kept 834,000 baht of the cash reward for the operation and also kept some of the cigarettes seized from the operation.

 

Chit’s most famous case was in May 1998, when he spoke out about highway police taking kickbacks from truck owners.

 

Since then he has been transferred to several positions and has been the subject of four investigations by police committees.

 

Fed up with being unfairly treated by colleagues and supervisors, Chit called it quits in 2002 and joined the People’s Network Against Corruption to monitor police activities.

 

His last posting as a policeman was at the Tha Mai Ruak police station in Phetchaburi’s Tha Yang district.

 

Chit survived an assassination attempt after the overweight truck case. But his end came at his farm in Pak Tho district in Ratchaburi on Jan 15. He was shot in the head with .22 calibre bullets.

 

He died two days later at Police General Hospital in Bangkok.

 

‘‘I suspect that the killer is a man in uniform,’’ Pol Col Prayon said.

 

Chit’s son, Mr Krisada, also believes that policemen were involved in the killing.

 

‘‘There were several cases in which Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Chit had exposed police being involved with extortion,’’ Mr Krisada said.

 

Instead of relying solely on a police investigation, Mr Krisada, a lawyer, has sought help from others to see justice done for his father.

 

He forwarded the case to the National Human Rights Commission and Lawyers Council of Thailand last week.

 

He said family members, fearing for his life, had warned Chit to give up exposing corruption — but the former policeman was determined to keep fighting.

 

Now Mr Krisada said he would follow the investigation until the end.

 

‘‘I don’t know how far the police will go on this case,’’ he said.

 

 

Bangkok Post

 

 

[Guest fountainhall]

‘I don’t know how far the police will go on this case,’’ he said

 

Obviously nowhere, alas! Sad story.

[Guest Oogleman]

He who never smiles should set an example and award him the countries highest honour .

[Guest fountainhall]

Although the true story below relates to Hong Kong and not Thailand, and involves a case about the death of an allegedly gay policeman investigating homosexuality in higher places, there are many parallels. I hope that the sad death of the Thai police sergeant major may eventually end in a similar result.

 

On January 15 1980, Inspector John MacLennan of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force was found dead with five bullet wounds in his chest by a group of fellow officers who had come to arrest him on suspicion of having engaged in homosexual activities.

 

The coroner's inquiry returned an 'open' verdict on cause of death and there was much media speculation that he had been murdered to prevent him from going public with the names of high-ranking police officers who were also under investigation for homosexual '"offences".

 

MacLennan had fallen foul of a new policy by the Attorney General who, in August 1979, had instructed the Special Investigation Unit of the police force - a specially set up group whose remit was to investigate the doings of homosexual procurers and paedophiles - to extend its inquiries into the lives of "members of the Judiciary or . . . or of the Police" where "credible leads" indicated that the members of these professions had been engaging in homosexual activities. The reason outlined by the Attorney General being that "it is unacceptable to have those charged with the enforcement of the law themselves to be deliberately breaking it".

 

The case aroused huge media attention, partly because the hotel room in which the body was found was locked with no key on the inside, but mostly because few, apart from the inquest jury and the subsequent legal commission, believed it even remotely possible that any policeman used to handling firearms would either need - or indeed could manage - to shoot himself five times before succeeding in killing himself.

 

The case led to the opening of the proverbial can of worms and brought to the media's attention a number of cases involving the homosexual proclivities of expatriate civil servants, much to the colonial administration's embarrassment. However, this proved to be the spark that ignited the call for reform of the law against homosexuals, a law that was finally changed around 10 years later.