More monk groups may be implicated
SEVERAL MONK groups, not just the controversial abbot of Dhammakaya Temple, are likely to be implicated for embezzlement in the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative scam.
“Our investigation has found links to six or seven more monk groups,” Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang disclosed yesterday.
More than Bt10 billion has been illegitimately funnelled out of the cooperative, and its former chief Supachai Sriaupa-aksorn has been convicted of fraud.
Phra Dhammachayo, the abbot of Dhammakaya Temple, has landed in trouble now because he was found to have received several cheques from Supachai before the embezzlement scandal was exposed.
DSI has pursued charges of money laundering and acceptance of ill-gotten gains against the controversial abbot. However, he has declined to answer DSI summons, claiming to be too sick.
Because of his perceived lack of co-operation, the court approved an arrest warrant for him on May 18.
Paisit yesterday added that the monastic chief of Pathum Thani province, where the Dhammakaya Temple is located, had answered the DSI’s request for help in regard to Phra Dhammachayo’s case.
“Actions within monastic guidelines have already been taken,” he said.
According to Paisit, the DSI has told the monastic chief that the agency wants to have neutral doctors check on Phra Dhammachayo’s health to prove his claim that he is seriously ill.
Medical Council secretary-general Dr Somsak Lolekha, meanwhile, said his agency would make a decision on whether to undertake a mission to check the health of Phra Dhammachayo on June 9.
At the Dhammakaya Temple, tension eased yesterday after Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha voiced caution about any operation to raid the temple and arrest Phra Dhammachayo inside the monastic compound.
Phra Maha Nopporn Poonyachayor, assistant director of Dhammakaya Temple’s Corporate Communications Office, thanked the prime minister and the justice minister for not ordering the use of force.
“As a reciprocal gesture, we have already moved away the excavator truck from a gate of our temple,” he said.
Despite the latest scandal against Phra Dhammachayo, thousands of people have still gathered at his temple – a show that their faith in him has not wavered.
A monk in charge of the Dhammakaya Temple’s foreign-affairs division also said yesterday that several Buddhist organisations in Japan had written to Prayut asking that he take into account Phra Dhammachayo’s health problems and his contributions to Buddhism and society.
In a related development, Paiboon Nititawan, former chairman of the defunct National Reform Council committee on religious affairs, and medical lecturer Dr Mano Laohavanich have lodged complaints against Phra Dhammachayo with a monastic chief in the hope of starting proceedings to defrock this monk.
“He has violated monastic rules,” Paiboon said.
