The Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) searched a cement plant in Saraburi yesterday for evidence showing it may have encroached on more than 100 rai of forest land.
The search permitted was jointly conducted by over 100 officials from the Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo), the 5th Forest Resource Management Bureau, and police.
It follows the arrest of Charoonsak Eksawat, a former official attached to the Department of Lands (DOL), on June 9.
Mr Charoonsak was allegedly embroiled in forging land title deeds for the company and later provided police with information that led to the raid, according to Counter Corruption Division (CCD) chief Kamol Rienracha, who was in charge of yesterday's operation.
Mr Charoonsak's information implicated Chakkrawut Nittayasutthi, adviser to TPI Polene, and Narongphol Kaewsan, the stone mill's administrator, as accomplices.
Mr Chakkrawut served as a National Legislative Assembly member in 2006.
A search warrant was obtained from the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, resulting in the raid on the stone mill of TPI Polene Plc in Kaeng Khoi district.
Authorities, however, failed to locate and arrest Mr Chakkrawut and Mr Narongphol.
Police are now considering whether to file charges on forest encroachment and also on the alleged counterfeiting of land title deeds and other documents to facilitate licences for the rock mine.
The charges also include using other people's documents to cause damage under Section 188 of the Criminal Code and forging state documents under Section 266.
The penalty for the latter is up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 200,000 baht.
Somsak Sappakosolkul, director of the provincial forest bureau, said the department wanted to pursue the case against the rock mill for allegedly encroaching on forest land. Its probe found that rock blasting on the side of a mountain and nearby forest had caused more than 6.3 billion baht in damage to the state.
The bureau will check whether the concession allowing the rock blasting to proceed was legitimate, it said.
Amlo secretary Witthaya Neetitham said the case involved corruption and offences related to natural resources, adding the agency would work with the NACC to review all of the evidence.
If any wrongdoing was committed, all illegally acquired assets would be frozen.
TPI Polene executives could not be reached for comment on the issue yesterday.
Authorities first took up the case in 2014. Forest officials that year took legal action against TPI Polene on forest land encroachment.
The firm later produced three title deeds owned by two villagers to back up its claim that it had the right to operate the cement mill on the forest land.
As a result, investigators and prosecutors decided not to indict the company at the time. But the Office of the Attorney-General last year ordered another probe into the case which was later forwarded to the Central Investigation Bureau.
