Five excise officers, allegedly extorting 5,500 baht from a grocer owner acknowledged charges at the Bangkhen police station last night.
The elderly grocer submitted CCTV footage at her shop when she filed a complaint against five men who showed up at her store in Sai Mai district on Feb 13 and claimed they were excise officers. They searched her store without a warrant and took two packs of cigarettes from her store into a van for checking.
They returned to her and said they found one pack was counterfeit cigarettes and took her into the van to show them where she ordered those cigarettes.
Before reaching the destination, they demanded she paid them 20,000 baht but she said she had only 5,500 baht and gave them all of the money. They threatened her not to tell anyone about what happened and dropped her off at her store.
However, she feared that the incident could happen again, so she reported it to the police.
The investigation found that five men were excise officers. They were suspended from duties and a fact-finding was set up to investigate the case.
They face charges including demanding bribe, malfeasance, detaining a person, invading a property and having a weapon in possession or colluding with more than two persons to commit an offence. They denied all charges and were released on bail. (TNA)
