“Suicide’ of Land Department official now called into question

PHUKET: The autopsy on a former land department official who allegedly hanged himself in custody yesterday revealed that the man suffered an injured liver and internal bleeding, his brother said this afternoon.

Tawatchai Anukul, a retired senior official of the Phang Nga Provincial Land Department, was found dead inside a detention room at the Department of Special Investigation yesterday (story here).

His brother, Chainarong Anukul, went to receive the autopsy results at the Police General Hospital at noon today.

Mr Chainarong said the postmortem results showed that Mr Tawatchai died of suffocation but that he also had severe internal injuries in his abdomen that were consistent with having been hit hard by a blunt object.

Despite the autopsy report, Mr Chainarong said that relatives had “no questions” about his brother’s death.

Mr Tawatchai was arrested on suspicion of illegally registering land deeds for about 1,000 plots in Phuket and Phang Nga provinces.

— The Nation