The acting national police chief has suspended deputy chief Surachate Hakparn and four subordinates accused of involvement with an online gambling network, according to a source familiar with the case.
The source said Pol Gen Kitrat Panphet signed the order, which took immediate effect on Thursday.
Apart from Pol Gen Surachate, aka Big Joke, the order applied to the deputy police commander of Songkhla province; the deputy chief of the Phra Samut Chedi police station in Samut Prakan; and two traffic patrol policemen.
All five are suspected of being involved in money-laundering in relation to the BNK Master gambling network.
On March 20, the prime minister transferred Pol Gen Surachate and national police chief Torsak Sukvimol to inactive posts and named Pol Gen Kitrat as the acting chief.
The two sidelined senior officers had been engaged in a long-running feud, with public accusations flying back and forth about involvement with illegal gambling networks.
Pol Gen Surachate on April 2 turned himself in to police to answer charges of money laundering, just hours after investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was subsequently released on bail.
A committee set up by the prime minister to investigate the affair said recently that it had found there were grounds to the allegation that Pol Gen Surachate was involved in money laundering.
On Thursday Pol Gen Kitrat also formed a new committee to look into the roles of the five suspects he suspended.
The previous investigation found that the administrator of the BNK Master gambling website transferred money to a bank account held by the deputy chief of the Phra Samut Chedi police station, though not in his name.
Money was then transferred from that account to the accounts of the two suspected sergeants. They in turn were reportedly ordered to deliver envelopes of cash to Pol Gen Surachate’s residence. The transactions took place between Feb 8 and Nov 3, 2022, the investigators found.
