Police to probe purported accounting book of bribes paid by oil smugglers
The National Police Office has ordered the setting up of a fact-finding committee to verify the authenticity of six images on the social media portraying what were claimed to be parts of an accounting book detailing the amounts of bribe paid to a host of officials of different agencies by southern oil smugglers.
Pol Lt-Gen Prawuth Thavornsiri, spokesman of the NPO, said that the NPO had been trying to determine the origin of the images and to verify the authenticity of the claimed accounting book.
He admitted that he could not say for sure right now whether accounting book was real or not because it was just the images of some pages which appeared on the social media. He also said that he could not determine whether the accounting book was linked to Mr Sahachai Jermsermsin, a fugitive oil smuggler who jumped bail last year while he was on trial on charges of using fake official documents.
Pol Gen Chanin Preechaharn, the police inspector-general, has been assigned to investigate if any police officers were involved in bribe taking from oil smugglers after the names of some police officers appeared on the claimed accounting book.
Most of the names in the book were nick names without any mentioning of their ranks, said the NPO spokesman who suggested that the book might be an old one and the netizen who posted it in the social media might have ulterior motive to defame certain police figures.
However, a check of the list of alleged bribe takers by the Isra news agency showed that some of the names on the list were real and it was likely that the book was authentic.
The claimed accounting book was posted in the social media on March 5 by a netizen under the pseudonym of "Waaak Khu Sa". The book was recorded by a smartphone or a tablet and then posted in the social media. A message was also posted saying, in summation, that the oil smugglers had decided to confront head-on with the authorities by exposing the accounting book.
The amounts of bribe paid range from a few thousand baht up to 390,000 baht. Most of the names of purported bribe takers were policemen of different units with some customs and revenue officials, local officials, defence volunteers and military personnel.
Informed sources said that the purported accounting book was different from the one seized from the office of Mr Sahachai, aka Sia Jo. That book eventually led to the arrest of then commissioner of Central Investigation Bureau Pol Lt-Gen Pongpat Chayapong and his gang, among them Pol Maj-Gen Kowint Wongrungroj, former deputy CIB commissioner, and Pol Maj-Gen Boonsueb Praithoen, former commander of marine police.