Police study allegations against ex-deputy of park encroachment
The Royal Thai Police (RTP) yesterday held a meeting to look into allegations against its former deputy chief of encroaching on Thap Lan National Park in the east of the country.
Deputy police chief Pol General Sriwara Rangsiphrammanakul said a working group had been instructed to thoroughly investigate the complaint. They initially found others involved, but could not say whether immediate legal action would be taken against all parties.
Former deputy police commissioner Pol General Jumpol Munmai and two others have been charged with encroaching on Thap Lan National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Wang Nam Khiao district.
The RTP announced on Sunday that Jumpol, along with Pol Maj-General Pongdej Prommijitr and Chayanit Pisitwanit, had been reported to the Wang Nam Khiao district police by a forestry official at Thap Lan.
They face charges after local police, the Crime Suppression Division, a local Army infantry battalion, environmental crime police and forestry officials raided a plot of land in the district last Monday.
According to a statement from the RTP, the raid found six houses built on a plot under the care of a 47-year-old woman, Tim Uthat.
Tim told authorities she had been working as a maid on the land since 2005, and that the houses had been built by Jumpol, who came to stay there occasionally. Authorities were told that the other two people charged, a couple, had sold the plot of land to Jumpol.
Authorities measured the plot and found that it comprised 13 rai (2 hectares) located inside Thap Lan National Park.
