National Police chief to sue lawyer Sittra for allegedly linking him to bribes
A legal team of Police Commissioner-General Pol General Torsak Sukvimol will file defamation lawsuits against a celebrity lawyer in the Criminal Court on Friday for allegedly linking the police chief to collecting massive bribes.
Lawyer Suteepong Chevitcharoen and Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, chairman of the Crime Victims Assistance Club and a staff of Torsak’s legal team, announced they would take lawyer Sittra Biabungkerd to court on Friday to defend Torsak’s reputation.
Atchariya informed reporters via online messages that the legal team would file both criminal and civil lawsuits against Sittra at 1.30pm on Friday.
Earlier, Suteepong told reporters that his team was preparing documents to file a criminal lawsuit against Sittra related to a press conference he held on Tuesday.
Suteepong said Sittra’s press conference had caused damage to Torsak, his family, police agencies under his supervision, and temples.
On Tuesday, Sittra, who has shot to fame for winning a 30-million-baht lottery ticket case, alleged at a press conference that a gang of corrupt police officers had been collecting bribes from several types of unlawful or grey businesses to feed three senior police officers.
Sittra did not name Torsak directly but he said the top of the transaction line was a police general with initial “Tor Tao” or “T” in English.
Sittra claimed he had evidence of transfers to the bank account of General Tor Tao and his family and General Tor Tao had also used the unlawful money to donate to several temples so that he could get certificate of donations for income tax reduction.
Sittra alleged that the bribe collection gang came from two police divisions and a bureau.
He claimed his evidence included money trails, bank transfer slips and video footage.
He alleged that the gang received bribes from illegal online websites, and illegal loan sharks and even leaders of illegal Indian migrants.
He alleged that the bribes were estimated to amount to over 100 million baht per month.
On Thursday, Sittra went to meet Pol General Charoon Parnkiart, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, to submit the “evidence” and called on the bureau to investigate General Tor Tao.
Also on Thursday, a vice abbot of Wat Thiang Phimuk in Chachoengsao province said Torsak used to make donations to the temple but the donation was made in cash, not through money transfer. The vice abbot added that Torsak did not seek a certificate of donation either.
Suteepong added that Torsak was not worried and maintained that he had not taken bribes as alleged.
The lawyer said that although Sittra had claimed to have strong evidence, it had yet to be proved whether the evidence was authentic and whether it had been obtained lawfully.
