19-7-2023 (BANGKOK) Five police officers in this northeastern province are under investigation for allegedly abducting a woman, falsely accusing her of drug possession, and extorting money from her in exchange for her release. The incident took place in an area under the jurisdiction of Muang police station in Kalasin, according to Pol Maj Gen Phuttiphong Musikul, deputy commander of Provincial Police Region 4.
The allegation was supported by a video taken surreptitiously with a mobile phone, confirmed Pol Maj Gen Phuttiphong. The video showed all five men, who are officers attached to various units in Kalasin province. A fact-finding investigation has been launched to determine disciplinary and criminal action against the men, he added.
The woman, whose name was withheld, claimed that five men arrived at the resort in Muang district where she was staying alone on July 4. The men claimed to be members of a police task force in Kalasin. They searched her room but found nothing illegal, apart from 20,000 baht in cash. Then they took her from the room and demanded that she point at some white tissue paper left under a tree outside the room. When she refused, the woman was forcibly taken to their vehicle, and they drove around Muang district.
On the way, they tried to coerce her to confess that she owned the tissue paper containing illicit drugs. She refused to confess. The woman said the five men demanded 50,000 baht in exchange for her release. She was afraid of being falsely charged with drug offences, so she contacted her younger brother and borrowed 30,000 baht from him, which she gave to the men along with the 20,000 baht they had seized from her room. She had managed to video what happened during the police raid on her room without them noticing.
