Officials arrested for illegal land permits in Nakhon Ratchasima

Police conducted raids at 13 locations, arresting officials linked to illegal land permits in Nakhon Ratchasima. The investigation centred on officials accused of issuing permits for over 600 rai of land, benefiting factory owners who used the land to discharge wastewater.

At 6am yesterday, Police Major General Jaroonkiat Pankaew, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, and Police Major General Prasong Chalermpan, Commander of the Anti-Corruption Division, along with legal advisor Thanadol Suwannarit and a special operations team, targeted 13 locations in Nakhon Ratchasima, Udon Thani, and Bangkok. The operation aimed to arrest four suspects involved in fraudulent land permit issuance within Nakhon Ratchasima.

Among those apprehended were land reform officials, a senior legal officer, a senior surveyor, and a senior land surveyor. They face charges of misuse of authority by a public official and neglect of duty by a public official. The first major target was a house in Village 12, Khok Kruat Subdistrict, Mueang District, Nakhon Ratchasima, belonging to the senior surveyor.

During the raid, the individual was not at home, having gone jogging at Suranaree University of Technology, about 6 kilometres away. The officers proceeded to arrest him there. The results of the other raids will be summarised later.

This operation followed a complaint filed on September 14 by Kritsada Intamara, a lawyer, requesting an investigation into certain officials from the Nakhon Ratchasima land reform office. These officials were accused of neglecting their duties, allowing a factory in the area to discharge wastewater onto Agricultural Land Reform land without taking any action.

Subsequent investigations revealed that the officials had expedited the issuance of land permits to 13 villagers, concealing the factory’s illegal wastewater discharge by making it appear as if the waste was being released onto private land, resulting in approximately 600 rai of land being damaged.

Ilegal permits

The suspects’ modus operandi primarily involved the issuance of Agricultural Land Reform permits to nominee villagers. Several anomalies were detected, such as land surveys not being conducted according to the landowners’ indications but instead being divided by the Agricultural Land Reform officials themselves.

Additionally, the surveys and land rights investigations for over 600 rai were reportedly completed in a single day. It was also discovered that farmers, acting as nominees, pre-signed survey results before actual surveys took place, constituting falsified documents.

Further irregularities included a lack of verification of the farmers’ qualifications. Some permit holders were found to be factory employees or individuals without clear qualifications, such as not being related to the rights distributors or not being farmers as required, reported KhaoSod.

Field inspections revealed that the Agricultural Land Reform 4-01 land parcels were mostly filled with wastewater ponds, unsuitable for agricultural allocation. Moreover, incomplete document signatures, rushed procedures, and false data recordings were also noted.