Officials from the Forest Department, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants and relevant agencies, began to dismantle buildings and other illegal structures on Phuket’s Freedom Beach today.
With the help of heavy machinery and a tractor, about 200 officials and workers were involved in the operation on the public beach.
Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division (NRECD) police detained ‘Parintorn’, known to some as ‘Sia Lek’, his wife, a daughter and a son-in-law, for further questioning on charges of defrauding the public by “selling” land on Freedom Beach, claiming that the land was legal and there are official documents to support that claim.
Land worth about 20 million baht was sold in plots, but the buyers subsequently discovered that they could not utilize the land as it is located in Nark Kerd forest reserves, which is public land and cannot be traded.
Pol. Maj-Gen. Anek Taosuparb, commander of NRECD, said that all four suspects have denied the charges, but police have appropriate evidence to the contrary.
Meanwhile, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suchart Chomklin said that the operation to clear all illegal structures from the beach was directly ordered by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul during his visit to Phuket in May this year.
He said police have spent six months investigating the alleged land encroachment on Freedom Beach and have gathered enough evidence to take action to return the land to public control.
He said that beachfront land in Phuket is very costly and can fetch as much as 100 million baht 0.16 hectare.
Yesterday, the minister spoke with some of the victims who were duped into buying land on the beach from ‘Sia Lek’ and told them not to be intimidated by rumoured influence of the vendor.
