DSI to summon Somdej Chuang

" I’ve instructed the DSI chief to issue the summons. If he doesn’t respond to the summons, we will seek an arrest warrant,” Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya said yesterday. 

Paiboon admitted he was upset over how Wat Paknam’s legal team handled the visit of the DSI team on Wednesday. Somdej Chuang is the abbot of the famous Bangkok wat. While the DSI was investigating luxury vehicles that had owners who were suspected of avoiding paying tax, it discovered one of the vehicles was registered under the name of the senior monk. 

After the scandal broke, Somdej Chuang’s lawyer said the acting Supreme Patriarch had resolved to transfer the |vehicle’s ownership to another monk. 

The DSI sought a meeting with Somdej Chuang to get information directly from him and was told the meeting could take place last Wednesday night.

However, while the DSI team was allowed to meet Somdej Chuang, the temple’s lawyers said the senior monk would only answer questions later in writing. The DSI was told to submit its question to Somdej Chuang in writing. 

“What’s the point of using letters?” Paiboon said. “If there is an additional point to ask based on information provided by the monk, both sides would have to write many letters.”

He said the DSI officials, led by a deputy director-general, headed to the temple in a respectful manner on Wednesday, bringing with them candles, incense sticks and flowers as a gesture of respect. “All officials of the DSI team also stuck by the order to not give interviews to the media. But once they arrived at the temple, they were told they could not take cellphones into the meeting room,” Paiboon said. 

DSI director-general Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said that his agency would check with the temple if the scheduled meeting with Phra Maha Satsanamunee, the assistant abbot of Wat Paknam, over the Mercedes-Benz case on Monday would be conducted the same way as the meeting with Somdej Chuang.

“If it’s the same, the DSI team won’t go to the temple,” Paisit said. “Because once DSI officials reached the temple, they were told to send a letter to request information.” 

Meanwhile, in regard to the Rajabhakti Park corruption scandal, Paiboon said all agencies investigating the case would jointly stage a press conference next week. 

“From what I’ve heard from the secretary-general of the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, the investigation results are now able to answer all the questions the public may have,” he said.