Premchai’s wife accused of illegal tusk possession

BANGKOK, March 7 (TNA) – The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation filed a complaint with police, accusing the wife of construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta of illegally possessing two pairs of elephant tusks earlier seized from their house. Pol Gen Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul, deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, said the tusks seized from Mr Premchai’s house on Soon Wijai Road in Bangkok did not come from any Asian elephant and local possession registration for the tusks is banned. Officials of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation already accused Khanita Withayanant, the wife of Mr Premchai, of illegal possession of the carcasses of protected wildlife, Pol Gen Srivara said. Mrs Khanita had sought the registration of the tusks. The offence made her liable to a jail term of up to four years or a fine of up to 40,000 baht. Pol Gen Srivara was waiting to see if the department would also file any other complaint related to the tusks. Interrogators would call Mrs Khanita, to answer the charge in 10 days, the deputy national police chief said. The legal action followed the arrest of Mr Premchai, the president of Italian-Thai Development Plc, in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi province in early February with companions, weapons and wildlife carcasses including that of a black Indochinese leopard near his camp site. (TNA)