Fugitive Pol Col Thitisan Utthanaphon, aka Jo Ferrari, surrendered to police in Chon Buri on Thursday evening.
The former chief of the Nakhon Sawan Muang police station admitted he had used bags on Jeerapong Thanapat, a 24-year-old drug suspect, during questioning, but said the motive was not to extort money from him.
Having seen photos of drugs on Jeerapong's mobile phone, he tried to get more information from him, he claimed at a briefing.
“I intended to get the information so I can destroy the drug business and protect the people of Nakhon Sawan. I made a mistake. My subordinates just followed my order and I take sole responsibility,” he said.
The 39-year-old former policeman insisted it was the first time he treated a suspect that way and denied having been involved in corruption.
On why he used as many as six bags to cover the suspect's head, he said he did not want Jeerapong to see his face but the suspect kept trying to remove them, forcing him to also tie his hands.
After Jeerapong lost consciousness, Pol Col Thitisan said he assumed the suspect was in shock because his wife had said he usually took large quantities of narcotics and suffered from lack of sleep.
His team tried to resuscitate Jeerapong and took him to hospital.
Asked why he ordered subordinates to remove security cameras at his station, Pol Col Thitisan said he was shocked by Jeerapong's condition and had never experienced such an incident.
Reporters asked him how he felt when one of his subordinates sent the clip to the public. At this point, deputy national police chief ended the session, saying he did not want reporters’ questions to affect the case.
Pol Col Thitisan was wanted for the alleged fatal torture of Jeerapong at his Muang Nakhon Sawan police station on Aug 6. Earlier, senior police said detectives had not concluded whether the death resulted from an attempt to extort money or acquire information.
Police said detectives were about to arrest Pol Col Thitisan in Chon Buri province but the suspect told police that he wanted to surrender.
Asked about the earlier report that Pol Col Thitisan fled to Myanmar, police said that he phoned him at 11pm on Wednesday and said he wanted to commit suicide.
They said they convinced Pol Col Thitisan to surrender to protect the honour of the police.
