Fugitive monk seems to have hoodwinked cops

AN elderly Thai monk wanted for massive fraud may have escaped a three-week siege of his temple — thwarting a much-vaunted dragnet ordered by the kingdom’s junta, Thai police admitted yesterday.

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

Thousands of police officers 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 amounting to the equivalent of about R435-million from the jailed boss of a co-operative bank.

The monk’s followers say he is innocent and they do not know where he is. They accuse the junta of a witch-hunt against a popular Buddhist institution.

On Friday, the police admitted the fugitive may have left the temple weeks ago. Their siege lurched into farce as defiant monks led them around secret tunnels, empty rooms and even to the abbot’s quarters — where cops found a bed with pillows arranged under a sheet in a poor imitation of a sleeping person. — AFP