The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) has set up a panel to probe a high-ranking naval officer whose wife was seen in a clip scolding conscripts believed to have been assigned to work in the couple's restaurant in Rayong province.
RTN spokesman Jumpol Lumpikanon said Thursday the disciplinary probe was launched against Capt Niwat Hacharoen, a deputy director of the Sattahip Commercial Port in Chon Buri.
Disciplinary action will be taken against the officer if he is found guilty of abuse of power, he said.
Adm Jumpol also insisted the navy will not brush the issue under the carpet as the service was concerned about the welfare of those who serve in it.
The probe was launched after a Facebook page, called Social Hunter, on Wednesday released a five-minute video clip featuring about five to six conscripts being severely scolded by a woman thought to be Capt Niwat's wife at the Ton Thang Rak restaurant in tambon Thap Ma in Rayong's Muang district.
Along with the clip, a page admin also posted a message: "I'm helping expose this story. Capt Niwat's wife mistreated these conscripts. They intended to serve the country. Instead, more than 20 of them are assigned as slaves for his wife!!!"
The admin also accused the couple taking the conscripts' daily 300-baht allowance as living expenses as they were allegedly billeted at the restaurant.
The page administrator demanded authorities take action against the couple.
In the clip, the wife rebuked conscripts for incorrectly recording water bills and scolded another for failing to keep watch one night, accusing him of playing with his mobile phone in his room.
"If you were Conscript Tree [a former conscript who stepped out of line], you would definitely have been beaten and scolded all day and night [by a couple of conscripts who once acted as her heavies]," she said.
Capt Niwat refused to talk about the controversy, only saying he believed ill-intended people were trying to defame him.
He admitted he was a restaurant owner but refused to answer any more questions.
It is widely known among residents that the restaurant, operated by the wife, belongs to the couple and has been in business for more than 10 years.
It is alleged conscripts were drafted to work at the restaurant from the beginning.
According to the port's New Recruit Military Training Centre, it hasn't sent sailors to help out at the restaurant for at least two years. The centre said it depended on the relationship between Capt Niwat and each commander of the centre.
