Police visit Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in corruption probe
Police's Counter Corruption Division officers had visited Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in Bangkok to check documents as part of a probe into alleged irregularities in the spending of a Bt28 million budget for temple restoration, a source said on Thursday.
During the visit, police officers interviewed some monk witnesses and got some papers relating to the budget from the National Office of Buddhism (NOB). The monk, who is responsible for holding key documents detailing how the budget was spent, wasn't there at the time, the source said.
The monk will be summoned for information later, the source said.
The Central Investigation Bureau chief on Thursday prohibited all police officers from commenting about the temple fund corruption case to the media.
The division's inspection of Bangkok temples stemmed from a recent case in which four NOB officials were accused of corruption by embezzling Bt60 million from maintenance funds at various temples. Twelve temples in six provinces were initially implicated in the scheme.
