Search the Internet          Tips

Thai cop cleared of Rajan bribe charges

Last November Rajan escaped from a Bangkok hospital room, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds sustained in a gangland attack.

He was facing a bid to extradite him to India, where the authorities want him to stand trial on murder and other mob-related charges.

His lawyer Sirichai Piapichetkul denied a Thai police statement that he had used knotted bed-sheets to climb down from his balcony, and said police had been paid off to allow him to escape via an emergency exit.

Later, he named police Major General Kriekphong Phukprayoon as the officer who took the money.

However, a Thai police committee set up to investigate the charges said it had found no evidence to prove a bribe was paid.

"After questioning more than 100 witnesses and monitoring bank accounts belonging to Major General Kriekphong Phukprayoon, the committee found nothing irregular," said Police Lieutenant General Pongsak Rohitopakarn.

He said Sirichai's tape of a conversation purportedly with Rajan, where he outlined the bribe plot, was fake.

"We have checked the tape between Rajan and Sirichai and found that is not Rajan's voice," he said.

The committee ruled the escape was due to carelessness on the part of police, who had been guarding him, and the immigration police who let him slip out of the country.

However, Pongsak said the case could be reopened if Sirichai could produce a witness to confirm the bribe had been paid.

Rajan was wounded in September by gunmen who burst into a Bangkok apartment and killed his associate Rohit Verma in what appeared to be a shooting ordered by Rajan's rival, Dubai-based gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

In an interview with the Star News television channel last month, Rajan denied bribing the Thai police and said he was forced to flee Thailand because he feared being killed by Ibrahim's gang.

"This is a lie. He is not a lawyer, he is a liar. After the period that he was my lawyer, I haven't spoken to him since and I haven't given money to anyone," he said of Sirichai's claims.

Rajan said a team of professional mountain climbers helped him escape from his fourth floor hospital room to his car, which took him to his yacht. He then sailed to an undisclosed port, where his private jet was waiting, he said.

"I am in Europe now," he said.

The Complete Coverage: The Chhota Rajan Case

Tell us what you think of this report