Credit union being 'lenient' with temple
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THE KLONGCHAN Credit Union Cooperative's decision to withdraw civil and criminal lawsuits against Wat Dhammakaya after receiving an initial payment of Bt684 million is far too lenient, National Reform Council (NRC) member Paiboon Nititawan said yesterday.
He added that the cooperative did not even get the temple to pay the interest lost or losses incurred from not being able to invest the amount that was unlawfully donated to it by former chairman Supachai Supa-aksorn.
Supachai has since been charged with embezzlement.
Paiboon, chief of the now-defunct NRC panel on Buddhism reforms, said the temple’s abbot Phra Dhammachayo returned the sum not because he cared about those affected by the donation, but because he did not want further investigations.
The NRC member added that he would ask the Department of Special Investigations (DSI) to find out where the money donated through the Nun Jan Foundation went. He pointed out that the abbot had told the public that he did not know about this money, yet evidence showed that he received the sum and later transferred it to the foundation.
Pakorn Sucheewakul, a senior DSI agent, said the abbot’s secretary, Phra Khru Palad Wijarn Theerangkuro, put his interview with the DSI off from yesterday to today. Another Dhammakaya monk, Phra Montree Sudaphaso, did the same. Phra Wijarn is being treated as a witness, while Phra Montree will be questioned as the recipient of the cheques.
