TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 UPDATE:

The Phuket News is reporting that police there announced that they have 20 teams of officers searching the island to track down the two suspects who shot Jimi Sandhu in Rawai last Friday (February 4) as national police chief Pol Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk visited Phuket.

The deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police was quoted from Bangkok by different news sources as reiterating that police believe the suspects are likely to be foreigners and are “two tall men.”

He also said that a check of Sandhu’s travel records show that he entered Thailand on January 27.  

Forensic investigation is ongoing and police are closely coordinating with Canadian Police.

The suspects were captured on CCTV as they attacked Sandhu. Nineteen spent 9mm and .38 casings were found at the murder scene.

“The investigative team has tracked down their escape route from the (murder) scene and are currently investigating their further escape route,” the deputy spokesman said.

He said the suspects are likely Russian-speaking foreign nationals, based on the testimony of a witness who heard them speak. 

Coconuts Bangkok reported: “So far the police have said that Sandhu entered Thailand on Jan. 27 on a private flight that connected through Malaysia. Immigration records show he first entered Thailand in 2016.” 

According to Bangkok Post: “Police said the victim stayed at the villa 15 days per month, paying 100,000 baht a month to rent the place. He drove to and from the villa several times a day and was frequently visited by two foreign women, they said.

“In the villa, police found brand name handbags worth hundreds of millions of baht, three Apple mobile phones and a rented red MG car. They also found many footprints in an empty house near the villa.”

THAILAND’S Bangkok Post is reporting that Indian gangster Jimi Sandhu, who was deported from Canada, has been shot dead at a Phuket hotel in Thailand.

The newspaper reported that police are searching for two men who were caught on camera shooting an Indian gangster to death in the parking lot of the Beachfront Hotel Phuket, in downtown Muang district of Phuket. The hotel also offers villas for sale on the property near Rawai beach.

When his body was found on Saturday morning, Sandhu was carrying two different pieces of identification: a passport bearing the name of a Canadian of Indian descent, and a driver’s licence bearing the name of another Canadian of Indian descent, the Post reported.

Police were called called to the hotel at 6.30 a.m. on Saturday after an employee reported a body in the parking lot of the villa zone, according to a Thai police officer.

The man was found lying face-down in a pool of blood behind a red MG hatchback with Phuket licence plates. Wearing a white T-shirt and cream shorts, he had sustained about 10 gunshot wounds on his body. Police believe the man had died at least six hours before his body was discovered, the Post reported.

Nineteen spent cartridges from a .38 were found scattered around the area. Some banknotes and some dried marijuana were found inside the car.

“When police examined security video from the hotel, they saw the victim driving the car to park in the villa zone of the 180-room hotel. As he was about to get out of the car, two men wearing woolen balaclavas to cover their faces jumped out at him. They fired several shots at close range and when the victim fell down, they shot him again,” the Post said.

Thai Examiner said: “Video footage from the scene of the killing shows the two figures both covered with woollen balaclavas initially lurking near another parked car which they used as cover before then approaching the victim as he emerged from his car, lunging at him while also opening fire.

“The attackers fired continuously at the man as he fell on the ground with one attacker bending down to shoot Mr Sandhu at closer range into the head area making sure the attack was fatal.”

The Examiner also reported: “Police officers who arrived at the scene found two forms of identification in the MG car parked by the Indian man seconds before his death.

“One is understood to have been a Canadian passport in the name of Mandeep Singh and a driver’s licence in the name of Amarjit Singh Sindhu.”

Police Major General Sermphan Sirikhong, Chief of Phuket police, said the victim had arrived in the province on January 27 and was staying at the villa wing of the hotel, the Post reported.

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