CityNews – In relation to a baby’s dead body found in Wat Huary Dinki of Doi Lo district, police region 5, officials of Chiang Mai Municipality and rescue officers raided Hai Ya Crematorium of Muang’s Hai Ya sub-district in Chiang Mai on the morning of April 23rd in search of more dead babies and to trace 70-year-old Soomboon Neramit. Soomboon lives at the crematorium and was found by police to be involved with the case.
By the time the police arrived at the Hai Ya crematorium, they didn’t find Somboon, but her husband, 58-year-old Sutat Neramit, an undertaker of the crematorium.
Sutat told the officials that his wife had escaped her creditors. He himself knew nothing about the case that Somboon was accused of selling dead baby bodies to monks.
The officials examined the ground beneath the crematory and found 16 black bags containing some parts of corpses such as livers, spleens, and intestines. Some bags contained dead fetuses, believed to be from abortions, as well as corpse flesh.
Sutat claimed that he got the flesh from hospitals in the north to be burned. He was hired for 1,000 baht each time.
According to Nichapa Jinaya, officials of Chiang Mai Municipality’s Public Health Division, who is responsible for Chang Klan and Hai Ya crematoriums, Sutat operated the cremation of this flesh without permission. She had ordered staff not to accept flesh from hospitals for cremation since the flesh has ice and chemicals used to freeze the corpses. When burned, it will damage the crematorium.
She added that the crematoriums used to burn flesh form Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai, but two years ago, they stopped accepting.
She will set up a board to examine the undertaker, she says. She also insisted that Chiang Mai Municipality was not involved with this scheme.
The investigations are ongoing and the police are tracing Somboon.