The Royal Thai Police (RTP) are in the headlines once again for all the wrong reasons after a Thai woman accused RTP officers of kidnapping and extortion 1 million baht from her boss in the Din Daeng district of Bangkok.
Police reported that initial CCTV footage revealed that two of the men in the criminal group looked similar to Immigration Bureau police inspectors but it wasn’t conclusive.
Namee Saelee filed a complaint at Din Daeng Police Station yesterday, reporting that she and her Chinese employer, 62 year old Qi, were kidnapped on Friday, March 10, by a gang of six men, who looked like RTP officers.
The 38 year old Thai woman revealed that she had been hired by Qi as an interpreter to help him with his passport and visa renewal at the Chaeng Watthana Government Complex on the day of the kidnapping.
Namee met Qi at his house in Soi Pracha Songkhro 2 in the Din Deang district of Bangkok and Qi’s friend drove them to the visa renewal complex. However, they were told that Qi did not have the correct documents so they returned home to recheck the paperwork.
Upon their return, they noticed three sedans parked in front of Qi’s house, and a group of six men who looked similar to RTP officers were waiting for them. The group and Qi’s friend appeared to know each other.
Namee claims that the gang then bundled her and Qi into different cars and drove off. One of the men claimed to be a police officer and interrogated her about her relationship with Qi. She told them that she met Qi last year and worked for him as an interpreter.
Namee reported that the gang drove along Chang Wattana Road for four to five hours before releasing them back to Qi’s home in the evening.
Qi later confessed that he was living in Thailand illegally and that he was using the stolen identification card of a Thai man. Qi revealed that his friend, who drove them to the visa renewal office, managed all the documents for him, and betrayed him.
Qi also revealed that the gang demanded US$60,000 (about 2 million baht) from him, and threatened to charge him with forging his identity card if he refused to pay. Qi eventually negotiated and paid US$30,000 to the gang. He asked his son to transfer the money in crypto to the criminal cryptocurrency account via the imtoken application.
Namee revealed that she has been unable to contact Qi since the incident and later learned that he had returned to China to live with his son. She was worried about her safety and wanted to know whether RTP officers were involved in any criminal activity.
Din Daeng Police Station officers revealed Qi was using the Thai ID card of a 55 year old Thai man named Saroj Thongkamai who lived in Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok.
They also found that two of the six people in the gang looked similar to police inspectors from the Immigration Bureau.
