By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER SRETTHA Thavisin was today (Apr. 22) accused of perpetrating power abuse which has allegedly put the National Police headquarters in trouble and rendered injustice to former deputy police chief Pol. Gen. Surachate Hakparn.
Pol. Gen. Surachate, nicknamed Big Joke, today filed a complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Commission against the prime minister who recently ordered for his removal from the post of deputy police chief after he had been suspended from duty pending ongoing investigation into alleged involvement in money laundering charges. The Pheu Thai-backed prime minister had ordered acting police chief Pol. Gen. Kittrat Panpetch to immediately depose Pol. Gen. Surachate as deputy police chief.
In his petition submitted to the NACC, Pol. Gen. Surachate has accused the prime minister of perpetrating power abuse by not only deposing him of the post of deputy police chief but having earlier named Pol. Gen. Torsak Sukwimon as police chief allegedly on nepotistic basis.
Police chief Pol. Gen. Torsak and Pol. Gen. Surachate have been suspended from duty and transferred to inactive posts at Government House pending the in-depth probe into the money laundering charges pertaining to enormous sums of kickbacks allegedly extorted from illegal online gambling operators and allegedly funnelled millions of baht in bribe money to their relatives and former subordinate police officers on monthly basis.
Srettha had set up an ad hoc committee headed by former undersecretary for interior Chatchai Promlert to look into money laundering scandals surrounding both the suspended police chief and the deposed deputy police chief within two months. Both had categorically denied the money laundering charges.
Pol. Gen. Surachate contended that the prime minister had evidently committed power abuse by deposing him as deputy police chief whilst, he said, a money laundering lawsuit earlier filed against him has not as yet been ruled by court.
The deposed deputy police chief charged that certain police officers in charge of investigating the money laundering charges had failed to work in neutral fashion and ultimately rendered injustice to him. Results of the police investigation had been submitted to the NACC.
Pol. Gen. Surachate repeatedly commented that smear campaigns had been launched against him by unnamed detractors who, he said, would only look to keep him from rising to the top post of police chief over the next several years.
Purportedly in charge of security measures for VIPs, Pol. Gen. Surachate had earlier approached Srettha during the prime minister’s informal visits to de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra at the latter’s Chan Song Lah residence in Bangkok and at a house in the premises of a golf course in Chiang Mai.
Srettha has earlier confirmed he has followed the laws and regulations to address misconducts of certain police officers who had received payoffs from illegal businesses including online gambling operators.
CAPTION:
Top and Front Page: Former deputy police chief Pol. Gen. Surachate Hakparn at the National Anti-Corruption Commission today, April 22, 2024. Photos: Naewna
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