PHUKET: Relatives of the Indian man who was shot dead on this island province on Feb 4 cancelled their visit to take his body back to India, police said on Monday.
Pol Lt Col Ekachai Siri, a Phuket tourist police inspector, said the relatives had initially planned to come to Thailand to retrieve the body of Jimi Singh Sandhu on either Sunday or Monday, but they had changed their mind.
They had assigned a private company in Phuket to send the body back to India, he said.
Pol Maj Gen Kemarin Hassiri, commander for foreign affairs at the Royal Thai Police Office, said the relatives had authorised a local law firm to handle the matter.
Sandhu, 32, was shot several times by two hooded gunmen in the parking area of his rented beachfront villa on Rawai beach in Muang district in the night of Feb 4.
Investigators said the two suspects entered Thailand in mid-December and left Thailand via Suvarnabhumi airport on Feb 6, two days after the killing. One flew to Amsterdam while the other flew to Frankfurt.
The Phuket Court had issued arrest warrants for them.
They were identified as Gene Karl Lahrkamp, 36, and Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre, 36. Both are Canadians.
Police said Sandhu was born in India in 1990 and moved to Canada in 1997.
At the age of 20. he was wanted by Indian police in relation to 14 illicit drug factories operating in western India, police said. The drugs produced there were smuggled to Canada, Africa and Thailand, police said.
Police said Sandhu was also a member of two gangs in Canada, both involved in illegal drugs.
Sandhu was deported from Canada in 2016 over illicit drug cases and other crimes according to police.
Since then, it is believed he travelled back and forth between Dubai and Southeast Asia.
