Sa Kaeo police chief promises fair investigation, transfers father of suspect
Sa Kaeo police chief Pol Maj-General Omsin Boonyanuson said a deputy inspector at Aranyaprathet Police Station has been transferred to an inactive post after his teenage son was implicated in a murder.
He said the officer was transferred temporarily to the Sa Kaeo police headquarters so he could not interfere in the investigation, as his son is among the five suspects.
The Sa Kaeo police chief promised that the case would proceed fairly and transparently even though one of the suspect’s father was a police officer.
Omsin was speaking to reporters to calm the public following an uproar on social media, in which many alleged that Aranyaprathet police tried to help the son of a fellow police officer by making the woman’s husband a scapegoat.
The provincial police chief explained that when Buaphan Tansu was found dead in a pond on the morning of January 12, police checked feeds of security cameras in the area, but did not find anything suspicious,
So, police summoned Buaphan’s husband, Panya, for questioning and he voluntarily confessed to killing his wife after a quarrel.
Omsin said police did not believe Panya’s account and further checked feeds from security cameras and found footage of the five suspects beating the woman and taking her on a motorcycle to be dumped in the pond.
However, Channel 8 announced that the CCTV feed was found by one of its own reporters who doubted the husband’s statement.
As for netizens claiming that police dictated a confession with graphic details to Panya and made him enact the crime, Omsin said he would set up a committee to investigate this allegation.
Omsin also said that there is no way the police officers can help their peer’s son because CCTV evidence clearly implicated him and the public prosecutors would reject a distorted investigative report.
Meanwhile, Provincial Police Burau 2 commissioner Pol Lt-General Somprasong Yenthuam said he has set up a panel to monitor the investigation.
The panel is chaired by Pol General Mana Inpithak, deputy commissioner of the bureau, and the Sa Kaeo police chief is also part of the panel.
Somprasong said the panel will speed up the investigation with transparency.
