One of the suspects arrested by New Delhi police is now under Bhutanese police custody
Update: The body of the 46-year-old Bhutanese whose body was recovered from a canal in Bangkok’s Klong Ong Ang district on April 3 is yet to be flown back to Bhutan.
Sources said that the deceased’s relatives have sent their DNA samples to Thailand only after which the samples would be matched and the body flown back. The Bhutanese authorities are yet to hear from the counterparts.
Sources also said that one of the suspects; a 22-year-old woman who was arrested from New Delhi, India last month is now under Bhutanese police custody in Thimphu despite Thai authorities requesting India to deport her to Thailand. In absence of an extradition treaty with Thailand, it is not known whether the woman would be sent back to Thailand.
The deceased is suspected to have died from a drug overdose after one of the bags of crystal methamphetamine that he had swallowed burst inside his stomach.
The Thai criminal court on April 8 issued arrest warrants for five more suspects, including four Bhutanese nationals and a Nepalese man, in connection to the death of the Bhutanese, Thai media reported. They are suspected to be members of a drug trafficking gang smuggling drugs from India into Thailand.
The 46-year-old deceased from Kabisa, Punakha, was a resident of Thimphu. He was a taxi driver and is survived by his wife and two children.
Including the deceased, three of the four Bhutanese men named and suspected by Thai police to be involved in drug trafficking are from Kabisa gewog, about 10km from Punakha town.
The man captured on CCTV allegedly dumping the corpse is the nephew of the deceased. A cultural tour guide by profession, he is believed to be a repeat offender in drug related cases and has been arrested by the Royal Bhutan Police before.
Kinga Dema