Police to discuss tycoon's death with medical examiner

Meanwhile, a medical examiner will discuss the cause of death today, and witnesses from the golf course, where Chuwong went prior to the road accident, will be summoned for information tomorrow, senior investigator Pol Maj-General Sombat Milinthajinda said yesterday.

City police chief Pol Lt-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul gave an order on Friday for the probe into Chuwong’s death to focus on 10 additional points because of suspicion of foul play. So, Sombat said doctors from two hospitals would be interviewed about the cause of death. The first, who got Chuwong’s body after the crash, has already spoken to police, while the medical examiner will testify to police today on the cause of death and wounds.

Police got information yesterday about Chuwong’s friend’s car, reportedly second-hand, from a car expert on whether it ran at a fatal speed, plus crash impacts and why airbags did not work, Sombat said. But there was no concrete evidence or new information so far to suggest it wasn’t a road accident death, as initially ruled, he said.

Meanwhile, investigator Pol Lt-Colonel Natthapong Kerd-eium said a lawyer for golf course “caddie and pretty” Kanthana Siwathanapol, 26, who was summoned to testify about Chuwong’s shares being transferred to her, asked to postpone a meeting with police until Tuesday or Wednesday. Natthapong said police will summon three others this week including another “pretty”, who received shares from Chuwong worth Bt40 million to Bt80 million .

Chuwong was found dead inside a car on June 26 in what the driver, Pol Lt-Colonel Banyin Tangpakorn, claimed was a road accident. But Banyin didn’t have any injuries. A former deputy commerce minister, Banyin has been charged with reckless driving that caused another person’s death. Given that a large number of Chuwong’s shares were suspiciously transferred to two women days before his death, plus several other suspect points, the billionaire’s family filed petitions to the authorities including the prime minister for a transparent and thorough probe into his death. This led to the police investigation that began last week.