A joint forces of police and officials from the Revenue Department, National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) raided several residences and business premises in Nakhon Pathom province today (Wednesday), which are linked to murder suspect, Praween Chanklai, aka “Kamnan Nok”.

They searched the house of a sub-district head called “Teng”, and were told by his relatives that he is currently in Cambodia looking after his restaurant business there. One of the relatives told the media that they were shocked at the sudden arrival of so many officials.

In a telephone phone interview, Teng claimed he does not know Praween personally and has never worked for him.

Police claim, however, that Teng had opened a company which was used as Praween’s nominee in bidding for construction projects in Nakhon Pathom, adding that Teng has served time in prison for gun attack on one of Praween’s rival companies.

In the search of a nearby house belonging to Teng’s relatives, police found three licensed hand guns.

In a search of the P. Phatanarungrod construction company, owned by Praween, security guards at the company initially refused to open the front gate to allow the police and officials to enter the compound.

The guards later agreed to open the gate, however, after police threatened to search all of them.

The search of the premises was still under way at the time of this report.

The Department of Special Investigation has launched a probe into Praween’s two construction companies, P. Phatanarungrod and P. Raweekanok, which have won bids to build two highways in Nakhon Pathom worth about 650 million baht. The suspect that the two companies might be involved in price collusion with other bidders or that Praween might have resorted to intimidation to scare away the other bidders.