SCHOOLTEACHER SURIYA Nuancharoen has made admission to police in an alleged plot to clear his friend Jomsap Saenmuangkhot’s name over a fatal 2005 hit-and-run accident, according to national police deputy chief Pol General Weerachai Songmetta.

Weerachai, who yesterday morning joined a meeting of investigators at the Nakhon Phanom Police Office while waiting for Suriya’s arrival from Bangkok, said a team of 50 police officers was set to handle this case and would start by interviewing 20 witnesses.

More arrest warrants might be issued as there were at least 10 individuals who might be involved including some state officials, he added.

Weerachai said he had joined Suriya’s initial interrogation in Bangkok and Suriya had given useful information. He said Suriya confessed to have hired a man named Sert Roopsa-art at Bt200,000 to take the fall for Jomsap. But the circumstance made it difficult to pin Sert as a scapegoat (Sert reportedly didn’t know how to drive), so he shifted to hire Sap Wapi with a promise to pay Bt400,000 but that also didn’t work out, Weerachai said.

The Bt170,000 that Sap presented to the court as compensation for the deceased victim’s family was also from

his group, in order to gain a credible ground for Jomsap’s petition for retrial, Weerachai said.

Asked if the investigation would lead to punishment for some Justice Ministry officials who aided Jomsap’s retrial petition, Weerachai said whomever was reached through the probe would face prosecution and there would be no exemptions.

Suriya was arrested at 10.30pm on Saturday near Bangkok’s Lak Si Train Station because police had traced his car’s GPS.

He fled to Bangkok after arrest warrants were issued for him and Jomsap on Friday and then Jomsap was arrested on Saturday.

As of yesterday, Jomsap maintained she was innocent but had not given a statement to police as she was waiting for her lawyer, whom she demanded to be present for fear of a “repeated history”, a police source said.

Despite the report that Jomsap denied any wrongdoing, Weerachai said that police had sufficient evidence to incriminate her.

Jomsap was convicted and jailed by the Supreme Court in 2013 over a road accident that killed Lua Phorbumrung in Nakhon Phanom’s Renu Nakhon district on March 11, 2005. When she was released less than two years into her sentence, she continued to publicly claim her innocence.

Her claim gained weight after Sap Wapi came forward to take responsibility for the accident. The Court of Appeals thus ordered a review of evidence to determine whether her case should be retried. The Supreme Court threw out Jomsap’s request for a retrial on November 17, stating that the new evidence she had submitted was not convincing. The court also pointed to the alleged plot to hire Sap to take the blame in place of Jomsap.

Last week, Sap confessed to police that Suriya had offered him Bt400,000 if he successfully claimed responsibility for the road accident.

Sap was among the seven people police had initially summoned to report themselves to officers today. They were Suriya, Sap, Jomsap’s husband Niran Saenmuangkhot, and witnesses Thassanee Hanpayak, Sap’s wife Chan Wapi, Boonterng Wapi and Lert Wapi. Boonterng and Lert have been cleared by police.