THE DAUGHTER of an elderly man who was shot and wounded in a gunfight at the Lak Si intersection on Sunday filed a criminal defamation complaint with police yesterday in relation to a report that went viral on social media.
The report allegedly accused her father of being the leader of a team of Cambodian mercenaries who were allegedly brought in to shore up the pro-government red shirts in their clashes with anti-government protesters.
Uaengfa sae-Lew said her father Ar-kaew, 71, is a Thai national and carries a Thai identity card.
He was a Songkhla native, born and raised in Hat Yai district, before relocating to Bangkok at a young age. He mostly worked as a beverage vendor before his retirement.
She said he lived with his two daughters in a home he had bought in Lak Si area for more than a decade now. She went on to say that though her father was a political enthusiast, he did not belong to any particular group.
Uaengfa said Ar-kaew called her at around 3.30pm on Sunday after learning about a confrontation between a group of red shirts and anti-government protesters.
He then headed for a supermarket near the intersection where she sells food, but did not answer his phone when she called him at around 4pm.
"Then at 6pm, I received a call from Vibhavadi Hospital telling me that he had been shot. I was shocked, and became even more distressed when I read online reports about him being a mercenary. It is not true," she insisted.
Thung Song Hong police said such posts were in violation of the Computer Crimes Act and have handed the case over to the Technology Crime-Suppression Division.