BANGKOK — Former Grand Chamberlain Jumpol Manmai confessed Thursday to building a luxury mansion on public land and declined to post his own bail, according to the police officer in charge of the investigation.
Jumpol, 66, served as deputy police commissioner before he became a grand chamberlain in the royal palace last year. The palace expelled him Monday, two weeks after announcing he was being investigated for allegedly building property atop protected public land in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
Read: Who is Jumpol Manmai?
Gen. Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said Jumpol will be held at Nakhon Ratchasima’s provincial prison while cases are prepared against him. Srivara said the provincial prison may later transfer him to another jail in the Thawi Watthana district of western Bangkok.
“He did not submit any bail request. He did not wish to ask for a bail release,” Srivara said.
Jumpol, who at the height of his police career outranked nearly every investigator who’s now prosecuting him, did not speak to reporters when he was brought to police custody Thursday morning. A doctor present said he was in good health. A group of his former police colleagues and classmates also showed up to give Jumpol moral support when he was brought to the Korat court for a custody hearing.
Jumpol’s mansion will be confiscated by the state in accordance with the law, Srivara said. He added that three other suspects connected to Jumpol’s alleged encroachment already turned themselves in, and one more suspect is still on the run.
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