Police search Rai Khing temple for more evidence against the former abbot

Police and anti-corruption officials went to Rai Khing Temple in Nakhon Pathom province this morning to search the lodgings of Phra Dhamwachirawat, the former abbot, to look for more evidence related to the embezzlement charges already filed against him.

The search was led by Pol Maj-Gen Charoonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, and Poomvisarn Kasemsuk, secretary-general of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission.

Phra Dhamwachirawat agreed to leave the monkhood on Thursday, after being questioned for about eight hours by CIB officers. He was also stripped of his positions as the chief of the 14th Region Buddhist Administration and as abbot of Rai Khing Temple.

Charoonkiat told reporters that police want to collect more evidence, specifically regarding the money trail, to identify people involved in the alleged embezzlement and online gambling.

The former abbot is scheduled to be escorted to the Criminal Court to seek permission to detain him for further questioning. He has the right to apply for bail.

The ex-monk is accused of misappropriating about 300 million baht from the temple’s bank accounts since 2021. Police claim that he asked his assistant to withdraw 1-2 million baht at a time from the temple’s bank accounts and transfer the funds into his own accounts.

Then, some of the money was transferred to the bank account of an online gambling platform broker.

When the balances in the temple’s bank accounts dropped substantially, however, the former abbot started borrowing money from other senior monks, according to police sources.

The sources went on to claim that police started the investigation when they received complaints that the ex-abbot might have misappropriated money from the temple’s accounts.

An undercover police officer, from the Crime Suppression Division, was sent to the temple to investigate and he remained embedded there for about eight months, gathering evidence of the alleged embezzlement.