Poipet City police arrested four men on Sunday and sent them to Banteay Meanchey provincial police yesterday for questioning after the suspects were accused of using the name of the Poipet City governor to defraud local villagers, police said yesterday.
Oum Sophal, Poipet City police chief, said his officers arrested Lov Bunpra, 47, Buth Boeun, 65, Sous Ry, 50, and Ly Thoeurn, 51, on Sunday because the four allegedly held a meeting with local residents, saying they worked for city governor Try Narin and ordered them to pay Mr Narin 3,000 Thai baht, or about $100, to produce legal land titles to their properties.
“We arrested them because they were defaming the name of the city governor,” he said of the suspects, adding that the four had been sent to provincial police for further questioning.
Mr Narin said such illegal activities much be eliminated.
“We cannot allow such anarchic activities that besmirch the reputations of government officials to happen,” Mr Narin said, before declining to comment further.
“It is the first case to occur in my province where suspects have used the name of a senior official to cheat local villagers,” said provincial police chief Hun Hean, adding that police were scheduled to send the four to provincial court today. Mr Hean said he had yet to question the suspects because he was busy in a meeting.
Soum Cheankea, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said that his organization was looking into the allegations.
“We have had information that the four had not intention to fraud, because local villagers were just meeting and discussing possible ways to get their land and other types of properties to be issued with legal titles,” he said.
