A court in Nakhon Ratchasima on Tuesday sentenced 12 officials of the Agricultural Land Reform Office (Alro) to 10 years in jail each for illegally issuing title deeds on reserved agricultural land covering 150 rai near the Khao Yai National Park in the province and selling them for 1.5 billion baht.
Lt Col Kornthip Daroj, acting secretary-general of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), said the Sikhiu Provincial Court handed down the jail sentence to the officials including Chucheep Horkhunthod, a land surveyor of the Alro. Earlier the PACC through public prosecutors charged the officials with malfeasance.
According to Lt Col Kornthip, the PACC joined the 2nd Army to investigate the issuance of title deeds for nine land plots covering 150 rai near the entrance of the Khao Yai National Park in tambon Moo See of Pak Chong district, Nakhon Ratchasima, in April 2015.
The probe found that the officials sought the transformation of a land occupancy certificate in the area into title deeds which illegally encroached on 150 rai of reserved agricultural land supervised by the Alro.
The title deeds were later sold to many government officials at about 10 million baht per rai.
The PACC would later ask the Land Department to revoke the title deeds and return the land to the state, Lt Col Kornthip said.
By law, reserved agricultural land is deteriorated forest land that the Alro kept for farm use and could not be sold.