Huge cash pile found in top Thai cop’s home

BANGKOK: About one billion baht (RM100 million) in cash was found by investigators in the home of a senior Thai police officer, reports said on Sunday.
Investigators were searching the house of Police Gen Pongpat Chayapan, who was arrested earlier on an unrelated charge, when they came across the fortune, the reports said.
According to local news channel Thai PBS, the officers found the cash stockpile alongside other valuables such as rare amulets and land deeds.
Officials say they are opening investigations into how the police general amassed such a fortune.
Pongpat and Police Gen Kowit Wongrungroj are already facing charges of lese majeste, under which the king's immediate family is above criticism. The monarchy is traditionally revered in Thailand.
People convicted of lese majeste face prison sentences of between three and 15 years.
Critics argue that the law is abused to advance political agendas.
Many of those charged have been linked to the "Red Shirt" movement, whose activists are broadly supportive of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
It is rare for high-ranking public servants to face charges under the law.
Last week, a radio show host was jailed five years for royal defamation by a military court.
Early this month, a 24-year-old student was jailed for two-and-a-half years for defaming the monarchy.
And in another recent case, a 28-year-old musician was sentenced to 15 years in jail for writing insulting Facebook posts about the royals between 2010 and 2011. – Agencies