Justice system faces a test
Our heartfelt sympathies to the family of Dr Hathaiporn Imwitthaya, victim of an apparent deliberate hit-and-run allegedly perpetrated by a drunken army officer on the night of June 4, in the capital's Phya Thai district.
If the witness account of the incident given by the victim's mother, 70-year-old Dr Pannakorn, is true then this is an outrageously unprovoked crime by a man with a very bad and dangerous temper.
But what is more troubling about this case is not the madness of the assailant, but the way the case is being treated by the police and also the suspicion that someone in the top echelon of the Royal Thai Armed Forces or the Supreme Command, has been attempting to cover up the case to help the assailant escape punishment.
Mind you, the victim is not an ordinary person but an army major working at Phra Mongkut military hospital with an outstanding record which has earned her a Ramathibodi title. Hence, her mother should not be worried about the possibility that her case would not be given fair treatment.
But, in the harsh real world, it is a different story particularly when the culprit is not an ordinary person but one with powerful connections. Which was why Dr Pannakorn was worried and decided to go public about her daughter's ordeal when she, accompanied by the victim's colleagues at Phra Mongkut hospital, went to see Pol Maj Gen Vichai Sangprapai, commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's first division, on Monday.
Police have categorically denied that they are dragging their feet on the case. But are they not? Consider the following facts: The incident took place about 8pm on June 4. There were several eyewitnesses, including the victim's mother. The incident was captured on a surveillance camera installed by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Also, a windscreen wiper thought to belong to the car in question, was found at the scene.
Despite all this evidence, it took Phya Thai police 10 days since June 4 to notify the Comptroller General's Office of the Royal Thai Armed Forces headquarters to have the car, a Nissan Sunny Neo, impounded for examination.
Why it took so long for the police to have the car impounded although the car had already been identified by Dr Pannakorn, who jotted down its licence plate number when it was parked in front of her daughter's clinic before the incident? With 10 days wasted, there is no need to imagine what has been done to the car or what evidence has been tampered with.
The hit-and-run suspect, Col Saksith Phuklam, a director attached to the Office of the Comptroller General's Office, gave himself up to Phya Thai police yesterday but he denied the charge, claiming that it was, in fact, the victim who threw herself at his car and was, therefore, hit. The victim is unable to refute the colonel's accusation as she is comatose. The saddest thing is that it is not known whether she will regain consciousness.
This sudden twist in the case with the accusation against the victim, brings to mind the case involving a fatal road accident on Don Muang tollway on the night of Dec 27, concerning a passenger van and a car driven by a teenage girl from a well-connected family. Altogether nine people in the van, including the driver, died and six others were injured. Six months later, the prosecutors have yet to bring the case to court against the teenager, who has come up with the new accusation that the dead van driver had been solely to blame for the road carnage. How these two high-profile cases are resolved will speak volumes about the credibility of the justice system in this country.
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