Thai woman blames police drug search in vagina for miscarriage

A Thai woman sued the narcotics suppression unit of Samut Prakarn Provincial Police, accusing officers of causing her miscarriage by searching for drugs in her vagina.

The 30 year old woman, Orranee Ruangphueng, accompanied by her lawyer, filed a complaint against the Samut Prakarn Provincial Police’s narcotics suppression unit at Bang Bor Police Station on May 18. Orranee claimed she lost her two month old unborn baby after the drug search.

Orranee recounted that 10 police officers raided her home in the Bang Bor district of Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok on the morning of May 16, searching for drugs and illegal objects. A policewoman then requested to search her vagina for hidden drugs.

Orranee said she informed the police that she was pregnant but the officer insisted on probing her private parts. According to Orranee, the policewoman inserted a finger into her vagina, causing her to bleed. She then felt pain in her stomach and a blood clot later came out in the toilet.

According to Orranee, she did not reveal her symptoms to the police at that time because she was focused on the house raid. Police searched her home for 20 minutes before taking her to the police station.

Orranee did not disclose whether officers found drugs in her residence. She only mentioned that she was charged with illegally operating a kitty purse after police searched her phone and found evidence of an illegal operation.

Orranee said she later contacted her friend to bail her out and went to a hospital for an examination of her pregnancy. She discovered that she suffered threatened abortion symptoms and later lost her child.

ThaiRath reported that narcotics suppression unit officers raided Orranee’s house because of her close relationship with drug suspects. Her 22 year old boyfriend, Saengrawee Kuiwongtarn, was arrested on the day of the incident, and her ex-boyfriend had been previously arrested in the same case.

The Superintendent of Bang Bor Police Station, Chairat Rungrueng, admitted that the policewoman searched Orranee’s private parts but officers are awaiting a further medical examination to confirm whether the procedure was indeed the cause of her miscarriage.

A similar case was reported in April when a Thai woman sued police officers in the central province of Nonthaburi for unethical behaviour. She said the officers searched her vagina for drugs without any sacred evidence of her involvement in the illegal items.