The cabinet dismissed high-profile forensic expert Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan as director-general of the Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS) yesterday.
Porntip: Shunted to southern command
Under its resolution yesterday, Khunying Porntip will become an adviser to the government's southern command centre. She will be replaced at the CIFS by Lt Col Anek Yomjinda, deputy secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC).
Khunying Porntip, who was in China yesterday, said she knew about the decision and accepted it.
She said she had been removed from the post because some politicians might have been upset with her work. However, she added that she still had much work to accomplish including criminal cases in the southernmost provinces.
Khunying Porntip was a pathology lecturer and head of forensics at Ramathibodi Hospital.
In 2001, she was transferred to become director of the medical service division at the Justice Ministry when former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat was the ministry's permanent secretary.
When the Justice Ministry successfully founded the CIFS in 2005, Khunying Porntip became its deputy director-general.
However, she developed conflicts with the Royal Thai Police Office, resulting in the CIFS being barred from working in Bangkok and other provinces. The CIFS then turned to work in the far South.
Khunying Porntip was appointed as the CIFS director-general in 2008 during the tenure of the Samak Sundaravej government. She has been in the position for five years.
Lt Col Anek graduated in medicine from Phramongkutklao College of Medicine and was an assistant professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Siriraj Hospital's medical faculty.
He was approached to move to the Justice Ministry in 2002 while the CIFS was being established. After serving a lengthy stint as deputy director-general of the CIFS, Lt Col Anek was later appointed deputy director-general of the Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection. He was later moved to become SBPAC deputy secretary-general.
Justice Ministry sources said his promotion at the CIFS was supported by SBPAC secretary-general Thawee Sodsong, permanent secretary for justice Kittipong Kittayarak, and Justice Minister Pracha Promnok.