Prolific petitioner and activist Srisuwan Janya on Friday lodged a petition with the Office of the Ombudsman asking it to investigate the government programme to return land title deeds that debtors used as collateral to borrow from loan sharks.
In his petition, Mr Srisuwan, secretary-general of the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution, said the scheme, fronted by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon and senior police officers, involved lenders being told they would escape legal action if they gave back the deeds.
He asked the Ombudsman to look into whether such action was authorised by law and forward the case to the Administrative Court.
After checking the petition, Watanyoo Thipayamonta, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the Ombudsman, said that the matter was within the agency's jurisdiction and would launch an inquiry.
Gen Prawit was last week criticised by deputy Democrat Party leader, Nipit Intarasombat, who posted comments on his Facebook page which alleged the government's assistance to loan-shark victims was "faked".
He pointed to police mediation efforts between loan sharks and their debtors, claiming that he doubted the authenticity of the title deeds returned "by a deputy prime minister" to scores of local residents in ceremonies in a number of provinces.
Mr Nipit also speculated that some police officers may have set up these events to please "a senior figure in exchange for promotions".
He went on to accuse the police of dereliction of duty for negotiating with loan sharks rather than prosecuting them for charging excessive interest on the sums borrowed.
Gen Prawit insisted that all of the returned title deeds were real and can be independently verified. However, he ordered investigations into complaints filed related to the programme.
He also said that the agreements concern creditors and debtors only, and since police and other officials only acted as mediators, they could not be charged with dereliction of duty.