Court denies ‘Kai’ human trafficking arrest warrant

The court has knocked back a police request for an arrest warrant against Monta “Ying Kai” Yokrattanakan on human trafficking charges, citing incomplete evidence, said Pol Lt Gen Sanit Mahathavorn, acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

He said the court found the evidence which police had gathered to mount the human trafficking charge against Ms Monta to be incomplete and inadequate.

Human trafficking was the latest charge police have pressed against Ms Monta, already charged with filing false theft complaints against her former employees. Ms Monta became angry and allegedly filed the false complaints after the maids, mostly young women, refused her offer for them to work overseas.

Police sought the court warrant investigators appointed by an MPB commission launched a probe into the human-trafficking case against Ms Monta, said a source.

According to Pol Col Bank Buanual, chief of the MPB’s investigation division, a preliminary investigation found that Ms Monta had offered a 17-year-old girl from Mae Hong Son a job as a maid but later refused to pay her.

Between July 2009 and February 2010, Khwanchit Chirasakulchokchai was approached by Ms Monta who offered her 4,000 baht a month to work as a maid at her apartment in the Pracha Niwet area.

Ms Monta failed to pay the girl and when she wanted to quit the job, Ms Monta threatened legal action against the girl’s parents, said the source.

Police were convinced the girl may have eventually ended up as a human trafficking victim had she stayed with her boss. Ms Monta was also seen in possession of passports thought to have belonged to former employees. Pol Lt Gen Sanit said police asked the court approve a warrant for Ms Monta.