Forensic police quiet after probe of mysterious Agriculture Ministry fire
Forensic police were dispatched on Sunday to collect evidence at the scene of a fire that erupted in the left wing of the Agriculture Ministry on Saturday.
After a meticulous examination at the scene of the fire at 10am, officers remained tight-lipped about the possible cause of the fire.
The team from the Office of Police Forensic Science was accompanied by officers from the Nang Loeng Police Station.
The fire broke out on the second floor of the left wing of the building, near the office of Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chaiya Promma.
The blaze reportedly began in the kitchen area, where food and drinks for ministry executives are prepared, and quickly spread to the office of an adviser to Chaiya.
Pol Lt-General Trairong Phiewphan, who oversees the police forensic department, disclosed that the fire originated near the balcony inside the kitchen.
Two individuals, a male housekeeper and a worker in charge of spraying anti-termite chemicals, were in the building when the fire started.
Trairong said both of them told police that they had not entered the kitchen at any point. Security officials spotted smoke emanating from the kitchen at about 6pm and they rushed to check before alerting the fire department.
The fire broke out just one day after Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Thammanat Prompao had said that a suspected extortionist Yoswaris “Jeng Dokjik” Chuklom did not work for him and had not come to the ministry to see him.
On January 26, Yoswaris, his secretary, Pimnattha Jiraputthiphak, and serial petitioner Srisuwan Janya were arrested for allegedly extorting money from Rice Department chief Natthakit Khongthip.
On Thursday, Yoswaris and Pimnattha called a press conference to declare that they had not demanded 1.5 million baht from Natthakit for themselves, but were acting as middlemen for someone at the Agriculture Ministry.
Then on Friday, Thammanat angrily said Yoswaris had never visited him at the ministry but was a regular visitor at someone else’s office. He did not mention any names but gestured towards the left wing of the building.
Meanwhile, police said that ministry officials have yet to check if documents of certain agencies within the ministry had been damaged by the fire.
