Thai cops admit monk ‘may have’ escaped

AN ELDERLY monk wanted for massive fraud may have escaped a three-week siege of his temple, Thai cops admitted Saturday, thwarting a muchtrumpeted dragnet ordered by the kingdom’s junta.

On February 16 the Thai junta invoked special powers to seal off the the 400-hectare grounds of the Wat Dhammakaya temple on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Since then, thousands of police officers have laid siege to the temple in a bid to arrest 72-year-old monk Phra Dhammachayo, who was believed to be holed-up inside.

The former abbot, who founded the breakaway Buddhist order in 1970 and steered its rise to riches, is accused of money laundering and accepting embezzled funds worth $33 million from the jailed boss of a cooperative bank.

The monk’s disappearing act has transfixed the Thai public, spinning out questions of religion and politics and leaving Thailand’s military rulers struggling to explain away the challenge to their authority.

On Saturday, cops said Phra Dhammachayo may have left the temple in the early days of the weeks-long siege.

“I believe that he escaped between February 16-18,” Paisit Wongmuang, directorgeneral of the Department of Special Investigation – Thailand’s FBI-equivalent – told reporters.

Critics accuse the Dhammakaya sect of promoting a payyour-way to nirvana philosophy, burnished with “cultish” mass shows of devotion and a sophisticated PR machine.