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[Highwayman]

"Paranoid" Ekkayuth files police complaint

Ekkayuth Anchabutr lodged a complaint with Makkasan police yesterday claiming he had been followed by a group of men and felt his life was in danger.

The businessman who had been attacking the government over stock market manipulation said two sedans and a number of motorcycles had followed him from a hotel in the Asoke area. He pulled over at the Asoke intersection and sought police help. Police called three drivers, one from one of the sedans and two riding motorcycles, for questioning. The drivers, Chalermyos Srichaitha, 49, Sombat Aryusaeng, 26, and Kongchai Kraisan, 26, denied they were pursuing Mr Ekkayuth.

Mr Chalermyos said he was involved in Thai herbal medicine trade while Mr Sombat and Mr Kongchai said they were first-year students at Ramkhamhaeng University.

Police investigators said Mr Ekkayuth may have become paranoid because they found no evidence the three men were going after him. The men were later released.

However, police said later that they found two communication radios and a video camera on them.

They refused to reveal what was inside the camera. A police source said he suspected the men might have been sent by an intelligence agency.

Mr Ekkayuth said he overheard police at the intersection asking the drivers whether they had driven from parliament house. At the police station, one of the drivers who had claimed he was a policeman, handed over a mobile phone to the investigators so they could talk to his ``boss,'' he said.

Mr Ekkayuth had earlier said that he was the target of a death threat and also received mysterious phone calls.

[Highwayman]

CONTROVERSIAL TYCOON: Ekkayuth confronts ‘stalkers’

Three suspects held; tell police to ‘call Govt House’

Police were last night questioning three men accused by embattled businessman Ekkayuth Anchanbutr of having stalked him after he managed to intercept their car and confronted them on a busy Bangkok street.

Ekkayuth said he ordered his chauffeur to cut in front of a car he alleged had trailed him for three days, forcing it to stop on Rajadapisek Road near Asoke Intersection. The incident took place at about 6.30pm in front of many onlookers.

The businessman called Makkasan police station to have them send police to search the car after three men inside refused to leave the vehicle. Ekkayuth had just left his Prachatham Party headquarters to go to the Grand Pacific Hotel on Sukhumvit Road.

Reporters also arrived at the scene. Police identified the three men as Chalermyos Srichaitha, 49, a company employee, Thongchai Praisant, 26, a university student, and Sombat Wayusaeng, 25. They denied stalking Ekkayuth. Chalermyos said he was driving the two students to the Ramkhamhaeng area.

Ekkayuth asked police to search their car and check the last 20 numbers dialled on a mobile phone belonging to one of the men, but police initially refused to do either. As more spectators arrived to watch, police finally checked the car. One of the men inside handed his mobile to police and asked them to speak to a “senior Government House official” on the other end of the line.

Ekkayuth told reporters before police arrived that one of the men had identified himself as a government official, but refused to show any identification. There was a twoway radio and a video camera in the car, however.

Prapan Khoonmi, Ekkayuth’s lawyer, burst out in anger, saying that he feared for his own life. “The police are afraid of Government House and dare not search the car. I have to wonder if the power of the dictatorship is being used to threaten me,” he said.

The three men were being questioned at Makkasan police station last night and investigators said they had yet to decide if they would file any charges against them.

Meanwhile, a source said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday ordered state agencies to take action against all businessmen who commit fraud, in an apparent attempt to counter charges of double standards in his efforts to have the assets of Ekkayuth seized.

Thaksin ordered the Bank of Thailand (BOT), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and Thai Asset Management Corp (TAMC) to meet and find solutions to the problem of nonperforming loans.

The prime minister told aides after presiding over the opening of a jewellery fair at Muang Thong Thani that he had come across several businessmen wearing jewellery who were declared bankrupt after failing to repay their bank loans. “The country has many people like this. They don’t have the money to pay off their debts, but they sport gold and diamonds,” he said.

Fighting to prove his allegations of price manipulation of Siam City Bank warrants, Ekkayuth said he would submit his grievances to the Senate Anticorruption Committee, headed by Pol General Pratin Santiprapop.

He wants the committee to subpoena officials from the SEC to testify about last month’s trading activities in regard to the bank’s warrants. He expressed doubt about the thoroughness of the SEC in investigating his allegations.

“I provided them with information [about price manipulation], and just a few hours later, the SEC dismissed all of the allegations,” he said.

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