The government is ready to act on the Dhammakaya controversy if the court finds the temple and its abbot guilty of receiving more than 900 million baht in donations embezzled from a cooperative, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.
Mr Wissanu was responding to reporters' queries on whether the government was ready to forward any court rulings on criminal and civil cases against the temple and its ex-abbot Phra Dhammachayo to the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC).
"Anything that is useful for the SSC's consideration will definitely be submitted," he said.
Court rulings are expected to be used as the basis for the SSC to decide whether to defrock the former abbot for allegedly violating the Buddhist monks' code of conduct.
Mr Wissanu said representatives of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) met him yesterday to explain the SSC did not discuss calls for Phra Dhammachayo's defrocking at its Friday meeting.
At the meeting, the NOB informed the SSC about the National Reform Council's committee on religious affairs questioning of the NOB over the Dhammakaya case, Mr Wissanu said.
However, the deputy prime minister said the SSC usually holds a meeting every 10 days, and the next SSC meeting will endorse the minutes of Friday's meeting.
It remains to be seen what the SSC discussed at the meeting, he said.
Mr Wissanu stressed that a resolution by the SSC concerning the defrocking issue should be made public to dispel any public confusion.
Speculation surrounding the SSC's alleged resolution to defrock Phra Dhammachayo on Friday has been rife.
The NOB denied any such resolution was passed by the council.
Meanwhile, Phadej Mungthanya, the chairman of the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative, said the cooperative is pursuing a civil lawsuit against Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Phra Dhammachayo and his assistant Phra Palat Wichan, to return 933 million baht allegedly embezzled from the cooperative by its former chairman Supachai Srisupa-aksorn and his accomplices.
The temple has agreed to return less than one third of the amount, claiming the rest has been spent on construction, Mr Phadej said.
He said the court has set March 16 for the two sides to settle the case, adding that the temple had sent lawyers to settle the dispute out of court.
Mr Phadej insisted that the temple return all of the money sought by the cooperative.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said it is considering launching a probe to find out if there is any connection between money allegedly siphoned from the cooperative and the temple, a source said.
The temple and the former abbot could face criminal charges if they accepted embezzled funds, the source said.
Gen Prayut on Tuesday said he had instructed authorities to investigate a connection between the money and Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
The government is also overseeing an investigation into allegations of financial law violations in connection with criminal misconduct in the embezzlement scandal.
Phra Phisan Visalo, a well-known and outspoken monk and abbot of Wat Pa Sukhato in Chaiyaphum's Kaeng Khlo district, took to Facebook to denounce the Dhammakaya scandal as evidence of deep corruption in the clergy.
The clerical hierarchy is highly centralised, giving power to just a handful of the 20 elderly monks in the SSC, without any mechanisms to scrutinise them.
These elderly monks lack accountability and transparency, which had led to efforts by rich monks to bribe them to turn a blind eye to violations of the monastic code, he alleged.