Policeman commits suicide

KATHU: A nephew of an assistant commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, himself a police officer, committed suicide yesterday morning in Tung Tong, three days before he was due to be married, because he was depressed that he did not have enough money to pay for the wedding. Pol Maj Gen Kongpol Suwannaraks, Commander of the Phuket Provincial Police, told the Gazette that he went to Tung Tong Police Station after receiving a report that an officer had been found dead in a rented room nearby. In the room, he saw the body of Police Officer Vijit Saikwan, 28, nephew of Assistant Commissioner Pol Lt Gen Soonthorn Saikwan, shot through the heart. On the floor next to the body was a police pistol. Police interviewed Thitiporn Noosawas, 23, a hotel worker and the dead man’s fiancée. She told them that arrangements had already been made for the wedding on Koh Panyee, Phang-Nga, on Saturday, and that 500 invitations had been sent out. She said that Vijit had visited his family in Phattalung earlier in the day and had then gone to a friend’s birthday party. He had returned slightly drunk and upset, complaining that his family had no money to help him pay for the wedding. They had stayed together that night, she said, and he had been very restless. In the early morning she was woken by a shot and found Vijit dead. While she slept, he had written her a note saying that he was depressed and asking that she send his body back to Phattalung for cremation. The dead man’s superior, Pol Lt Col Witum Kongsudjai, superintendent of Tung Tong police station, said that Vijit was an expert marksman and a popular officer.