Kobkul was cut down in a hail of M-16 gunfire when her pick-up truck was parking at an intersection in Ratchaburi's Muang district at 8:40 pm Saturday.

Police investigators said Kobkul might have business conflicts with a former senator over farm product markets.

The investigators said Kobkul had built new wholesale and retail farm products markets, causing the former senator to lose a lot of income.

Kobkul also owned a construction firm and was building a new town project in Ratchaburi, which could be another source of conflicts with other construction contractors, investigators said.

Pol Lt Gen Chalong Somjai, commissioner of Provincial Police Bureau 7, said Kobkul was building a new market, called Muang Phet Market. Once complete, the new market could draw customers from a current market.

Chalong said the investigation would focus on this motive.

Pol Lt Col Somchai Thongsangiam, an investigator of Muang district police station, said Kobkul was travelling in her pick-up truck with her bodyguard, who is a police sergeant, and the a driver. The two men were injured in the shooting.

Somchai said Kobkul was returning from a wedding ceremony and returning to her home in Muang district.

Somchai quoted witnesses as saying that a pick-up truck pulled up on the right side of Kobkul's vehicle at the Intersection and a gunman emptied his M-16 assault rifle on her.

Police found some 30 spent shells of M-16 rifle at the scene.

The bullets entered Kobkul's right side of her head and her body. The vehicle was also riddled with the bullets.

The bodyguard, Sgt Saichol Kaewthong, 35, was shot twice on his right shoulder and another on the right side of his body. The driver, Chatree Suparanan, 52, was shot one time on his right arm.

Kobkul was born on October 13 1959. She was a cousin of caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop.

She was elected as an MP for the first time in 2001 as a Chat Pattana MP.

She won a House seat for the second time in 2005 as a Thai Rak Thai Party MP.

She also won in the April 2 election before the Constitution Court nullified the election.

Suwat said he had reported the murder to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who in return instructed Police Commissioner General Pol Gen Kowit Wattana to speed up the investigation into the murder.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva Sunday called on the government to try to bring those behind the killing to justice as soon as possible.

The Nation