Police are threatening legal action against anyone who provides shelter for the two senior monks who are wanted for alleged temple fund embezzlement and still at large.
Crime Suppression Division (CSD) chief Pol Maj Gen Maitree Chimcherd said that police are ramping up the search of the two senior monks -- Wat Sa Ket abbot Phra Phrom Sitthi, and Wat Samphanthawong assistant abbot Phra Phrom Methee.
Pol Maj Gen Maitree also warned associates of the pair not to provide them with shelter or they will be prosecuted for aiding criminal suspects in violation of Section 189 of the Criminal Code.
Pol Maj Gen Maitree admitted that a police investigation has also found that a senior monk implicated in the temple fund embezzlement scandal also committed sexual misconduct.
While such misconduct was not a criminal offence, police had recorded it in an investigation report and will forward it to the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) which will present the matter to the Sangha Supreme Council (SSC) for further action, the CSD chief said.
Crime Suppression police arrested five senior monks in predawn raids on three temples in Bangkok on Thursday.
At Wat Sa Ket, they arrested three assistant abbots while abbot Phra Phrom Sitthi, who was on the arrest warrant, could not be found.
At Wat Sam Phraya, they took into custody abbot Phra Phrom Dilok and his secretary Phra Atthakit Sophon.
At Wat Samphanthawong in Yaowarat area, they could not locate assistant abbot Phra Phrom Methee who was also wanted on an arrest warrant.
The monks face charges of money laundering linked to temple fund fraud.
At the same time, another team of police raided Wat Or Noi in Nakhon Pathom's Kamphaeng Saen district where they arrested the abbot, Phra Buddha Isara.
The six arrested monks were defrocked and are now being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison.
Four laymen were also apprehended during the raids on Thursday.
They are Nuchara Sitthinok, Thamporn Niponpittaya, Thirapong Phansri and Tawit Sangyu, a 42-year-old official of Wat Sa Ket.
Pol Col Thongchai Yuket, chief of the CSD's Division 1, said police believe that Wat Sa Ket abbot Phra Phrom Sitthi, who is still at large, left the temple on Wednesday after returning from a function in Nakhon Pathom before the police raid the following day.
A source at the CSD said that an examination of money trails of a senior monk had found that two bank accounts were opened for grant-in-aid for temples provided by the NOB under the 2016 fiscal budget.
However, a check had found the 70 million baht in the accounts was not spent on those projects but was transferred to the accounts of several close associates, the source said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday apologised for the arrest of former Phra Buddha Isara on Thursday after several people argued that excessive force was used.
The former monk was charged with robbery and running an illegal secret society after his guards beat up two plainclothes policemen, took their valuables and detained them for questioning during the People's Democratic Reform Committee protests in Bangkok in 2014.
Phra Buddha Isara, whose layman name is Suwit Thongprasert, also faces a charge of forgery for using royal initials without permission when he cast a batch of amulets in 2011.
After a video clip of the arrest of the former monk made the rounds on social media, showing armed police executing the arrest, several people questioned the use of such force.
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday Gen Prayut apologised to the people for the rough handling of the former Phra Buddha Isara and said he had reprimanded officials and told them to amend their procedures.
The two monks as well as defrocked Phra Phrom Dilok were dismissed as members of the SSC by His Holiness the Supreme Patriarch following the police raids on Thursday.
