A prominent lawyer has filed a police complaint accusing the 8-year-old boy dubbed “Nong Nice, mind connection" and alleged sect associates of fraud in promoting the child's purported psychic powers.
Ananchai Chaiyadet, chairman of the Dharma Army Lawyers Foundation, on Tuesday filed the complaint with the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) at the Central Investigation Bureau.
The boy, his lawyer Thammarat Sarapanya, 60 administrators of a social media page and a website promoting his alleged magical powers are accused of six offences, including computer crime and money laundering.
Mr Ananchai was accompanied by Chalida Palamat, chairwoman of the Be One Foundation, and former Democrat MP Tankhun Jitissara.
Nong Nice and his parents, from Surat Thani province, have been in the headlines over claims that the boy is the reincarnated son of the Lord Buddha and possesses a magical ability to “connect people’s minds”.
Mr Ananchai said they asked TCSD police to take action against those associated with the sect. No one else had done so to date. On Monday, the boy live-streamed on Facebook and threatened to send the complainants to prison, according to Mr Ananchai.
He said he had presented evidence and filed his complaint against the three groups of people, accusing them of violating the Computer Crime Act, the Criminal Code, the Money Laundering Act, the Donation Soliciting Act, Control of Begging Act and the Revenue Code.
“Even though the law states that a child who commits an offence cannot be punished, the parents if found to commit the crime must be separated from the child, who must be placed in the care of social welfare officials,‘’ lawyer Ananchai said.
According to Mr Tankhun, the boy's lawyer, Mr Thammarat, had solicited donations from people via his Facebook account to get money to fight a lawsuit. This was in breach of the Donation Soliciting Act. Although the amount involved was not large, he broke the law, the former MP said.
He also claimed to have evidence that Mr Thammarat’s law firm had not paid tax.
Earlier, authorities ordered the parents of Nong Nice to stop using their child to make money.
Apinya Chompumas, director-general of the Department of Children and Youth, and Pinya Chompumas, director-general of the Department of Children and Youth, discussed the case after meeting with the parents at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
The parents had gone there seeking help to protect the family against accusations that they were running a cult.