Pol Lance Corporal Nirut Thammasap has been charged with attempted murder and causing serious injuries, along with carrying a government-owned firearm while off duty. The alleged attack on Suphansa Wichanant took place on February 25 after he and the two other men chased her on two motorcycles when she was escaping from them.

Pol Lt General Pratchaya Sutthapreeda, chief of the Provincial Police Bureau 1, said Nirat Kongtham was the assailant who carried the knife and chopped off the victim's right arm above her elbow while riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by Prasarn Bundok. Nirut was riding another motorcycle alongside them.

The civilians have been charged with the same offences, excluding the one relating to the firearm. The three suspects have been released on bail after they turned themselves in to Ban Mor police station, to which Nirut is assigned.

Pratchaya said Nirut's superior officers at Ban Mor station and Pol Lieutenant Thanawan Marttraraj, the duty officer on the night of the crime, would also face disciplinary action for allegedly helping Nirut by distorting the facts of the investigation report to read that Suphansa lost her arm in a road accident.

The victim, a hostess at a karaoke bar in Ban Mor district, lodged a petition with acting police chief Seripisut Temiyavej on Tuesday because there had been no progress in Ban Mor police's investigation nearly one month after the attack.

In a press interview, Suphansa said she was eating alone at the restaurant before the three men, apparently drunk, approached her and verbally harassed her in a sexual way. They called her over to sit with them at their table but she refused. She scolded them after they moved to her table and continued harassing her.

The three men snatched the key to her motorcycle when she was about to leave the restaurant and demanded that she go with them to sing in one of their rooms. Suphansa said the key was returned to her after she scolded them more rudely.

She said the men then followed her on two motorcycles and Nirat chopped off her right arm with a long knife when his motorcycle caught up to hers. Despite the attack she tried to continue her escape, using her left hand to hold the accelerator, before she crashed the motorcycle, resulting in her right shin being broken in three places.

Suphansa said a number of Ban Mor police officers interviewed her the morning after the attack at a hospital where she was treated for her injuries. But the police concluded that her account was not valid because she was still in shock.