Bullying Red Shirt Tenants Beat Elderly Landlord | Pattaya Daily News - Pattaya Newspaper, Powerful news at your fingertips
Published : January 03, 2013 :: 1359Bullying Red Shirt Tenants Beat Elderly Landlord
A 53-year-old landlord in Sriracha was badly beaten by a group of tenants after refusing to illegally re-hook the electricity to their rooms. The men claimed to be security officers of the Red Shirts party. The victim’s elderly wife had been bullied into letting the tenants rent the rooms.
On January 2, 2013, at 1 p.m., a report of a Sriracha landlord being beaten by tenants for refusing to hook up their electricity was received by Pol. Sub. Lt. Nitiphum Rattanawannee, investigation officer at Laem Chabang police station.
Filing the complaint was the victim’s wife, Mrs. Chalee Chaisang, age 67, living in Laem Chabang, Sriracha. Ms. Chalee said several tenants had been illegally tapping into electricity from an electric pole connected to her house meter. The Sriracha electricity authority had already cut out the meter due to failure to pay the electric bill.
But the tenants then demanded that her husband re-connect the electricity to their apartments. But she refused their demand. When her husband, Mr. Pin Burana, also refused them, the angry tenants beat him unconscious. Mr. Pin, who is 53 years old, needed many days of bed rest to recover from his beating, so his wife came to the police.
Mrs. Chalee explained that she is the former owner of a well-known restaurant in Laem Chabang beach, which she operated for 30 years. But because she is getting old, she retired from the business and modified her restaurant to be a guesthouse with rental rooms.
About 11 months ago, her neighbor Mr. Samruay Malathip brought her a prospective tenant, “Mr. Lek” (alias). Mr. Lek claimed to be a security guard for a minister in the Red Shirt political activist party. He told Mrs. Chalee he wanted to rent a room and a parking space for his 6-wheel truck.
Mrs. Chalee assumed he must be an honorable person, since he was with the Red Shirt party. But in the following month, Mr. Lek brought his friends to live in her rental rooms. He threatened her to allow them to stay, because they were the subordinates of the minister and with the officials of the Laem Chabang Port Authority.
Mrs. Chalee didn’t want to have problems with the bullying men, because she is almost 70 years old, so she consented to be threatened. However, later her husband Mr. Pin was beaten by them, after he refused to re-hook their electricity illegally. Her husband was blockaded by 3 men while Mr. Lek beat him until he was unconscious, and Mr. Pim was injured with many serious bruises on his body.
After beating her husband, the bullying tenants then re-connected the electricity themselves for their use. The group of men threatened and forbid anyone to stop them. If anyone takes out the electricity line from the electricity pole, they will kill them, the Red Shirt tenants warned.
But Mrs. Chalee was afraid of being held at fault by authorities for the illegal tapping of electricity, so she came to notify the police.
A reporter gave his follow-up account of the incident. On January 1, at 10 a.m., the beating of Mr. Pin Burana was reported to Pol. Sub. Lt. Pichet Meephuphen, officer on duty, Laem Chabang police station.
Mr. Pin lives at a residence in Tambon Laem Chabang, Amphur Sriracha, Chonburi province. He was beaten by a group of 3 men until he was unconscious at the (temporary) Center of People Service club in Laem Chabang.
The beating had occurred on the evening of December 29, 2012. Mr. Pin told police that while he was sitting to relax in the Center of People Service club, he was confronted by his 3 tenants. They had claimed that they were security guards of the Red Shirt party and the subordinates of a party minister, led by Mr. Lek.
They asked Mr. Pin to re-connect the electricity to their rooms. Their electricity had been cut off by the Sriracha electricity authority because of a late bill payment, which the group claimed they had now paid.
However, the electricity authority still didn’t come to set up the meter and re-connect their electricity, which made the group of men feel unsatisfied.
So they walked to Mr. Pin and told him to connect the electricity for them right now. But Mr. Pin replied that he will not re-connect electricity for them because it is illegal.
This made Mr. Lek furious, so he punched Mr. Pin until he became unconscious, while the other 3 men together beat him with a hard object on his body. Then bystanders notified police and the rescue officers sent Mr. Pin to Laem Chabang Inter hospital.
Later Mr. Pin was brought home to recover from his injuries. On the 4th day Mr. Pin regained consciousness. He realized he had been beaten until he was severely injured, so he came to notify the police to prosecute the suspects further according to the law.