BANGKOK, Sept 15 (TNA) – Police have arrested a Chinese man for kidnapping a 27-year-old Chinese woman, who managed to flee after a road accident on an expressway.
After a rear-end car collision, the Chinese woman with hands and feet tied sought help from a nearby taxi driver.
Deputy metropolitan police commissioner Noppasin Poonsawat revealed that the suspect and the victim who had known each other for over ten days through the Telegram application. They had then arranged to meet at a restaurant in the Ramkhamhaeng area and drank alcohol. The woman got drunk and later woke up in a hotel room in Ladphrao, where the suspect had taken her.
The suspect then convinced her into going to Pattaya, but en route, he physically assaulted her and demanded a ransom of 200,000 yuan, approximately 1 million baht.
The victim claimed she didn’t have that amount of money, so she contacted a friend for help. The friend transferred 50,000 yuan, around 250,000 baht, into the victim’s account. While the suspect was taking her to withdraw the money from a bank, they were involved in a car accident on the Si Rat Expressway.
Following the accident, the victim took the opportunity to escape and sought help from a passing taxi. The taxi driver then brought her to the police station. The police checked CCTV footage and apprehended the suspect, taking him into custody and launching an investigation.
During the preliminary investigation, it was discovered that the female victim worked as an agent, accompanying Chinese nationals for plastic surgery procedures in South Korea. She stayed at a condominium in the Asoke-Montri area. The suspect worked as a freelance driver in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and both of them occasionally visited Thailand for tourism purposes.
At this stage, it has not been confirmed whether the suspect had any connections to organized criminal groups or previous incidents of a similar nature, but it is believed that he engaged in a pattern of deceiving victims into consuming drugs and then extorting their belongings. Further investigations are ongoing to determine the extent of his criminal activities. (TNA)
