A hospital owner and two more suspects have been arrested for conspiring to kill a well-known monk in Udon Thani earlier this month.
They were flown from the northeastern province to Bangkok where police chief Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung held a news conference on the case on Saturday afternoon.
Phra Bandit Supanthito, 48, the abbot of Wat Pa Tor Si Siad, a small forest temple, was shot dead in Udon Thani on March 1. He was well known in the community as the "doctor monk", having trained and worked as a physician before entering the monkhood.
Banjerd Chatpaitoon, executive chairman and founder of Aek Udon International Hospital, was accused of hiring the gunman. Pol Snr Sgt Maj Charnchai Soisangwan allegedly led the team and drove the car during the murder. Boonnak Hongsakam, a driver at an irrigation office in Udon Thani, reportedly was the marksman.
Panja Chareesaen, the alleged gunman arrested on Wednesday, was said to have confessed on Friday. Mr Banjerd has refused to give a statement so far.
During preliminary investigation, Pol Snr Sgt Maj Chanchai confessed that Mr Banjerd had hired him to arrange the killing of the monk for 300,000 baht.
The policeman said he hired Mr Panja and transferred 50,000 baht to him on Jan 31 to buy a gun. He insisted he had not known Mr Banjerd before but agreed to do the job after Mr Banjerd claimed he knew Pol Maj Gen Boonlue Korbangyang at the National Police Office, whom he also knew. Besides, Mr Banjerd was a well-known figure in the province, he added.
The sergeant major claimed Mr Banjerd had told him that the victim had been seen acting inappropriately and had been romantically involved with a female doctor. Mr Banjerd and the major general also asked him to spy on the doctor and the monk for almost a month.
The sergeant major found that the doctor frequented the temple where the monk stayed but he saw no unusual behaviour. Nonetheless, he hired Mr Panja for 150,000 baht and Mr Boonnak for 5,500 baht to proceed with the murder plot, claiming he needed the money.
He said he now repented and apologised to the monk's family, as well as his bosses.
Mr Boonnak, the marksman, also confessed.
Pol Gen Somyot said at the briefing that apart from the confessions, police also had other evidence.
"We talked to the implicated major general [Pol Maj Gen Boonlue] who confirmed he knew Mr Banjerd. He said Mr Banjerd asked him to spy on the doctor and he asked Pol Snr Sgt Maj Charnchai, who was his subordinate, to follow the doctor," Pol Gen Somyot said.
"But later Mr Banjerd called him several times for reports. Annoyed, he gave Mr Banjerd the sergeant major's phone number so that he could ask him directly."