“An arrest warrant for him has been issued. Officials can raid [the temple] and arrest him to enforce the warrant,” DSI deputy chief Pol Lt-Colonel Somboon Sarasit said yesterday after tripartite talks to arrange Phra Dhammachayo’s surrender collapsed.

The DSI, the National Buddhism Office and Phra Theprattanasutee, the monastic chief of Pathum Thani province, engaged in three rounds of talks. Phra Theprattanasutee was asked to help because Dhammakaya Temple is under his jurisdiction.

The DSI initiated the talks aiming to have Phra Dhammachayo surrender and acknowledge charges of money laundering and accepting ill-gotten gains.

The charges are based on evidence that Phra Dhammachayo and his foundation received more than Bt1.4 billion in cheques from Supachai Srisupa-aksorn, former chief of Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC), who has been convicted and sent to jail in a related embezzlement case.

Despite summonses from the DSI, Phra Dhammachayo has never shown up to acknowledge the charges against him, claiming that he is too ill to leave his temple.

The DSI has been trying to dispatch neutral doctors to check the monk’s condition, but so far he has not yet allowed himself to be examined.

So after two rounds of talks, the DSI on Monday forwarded the case against Phra Dhammachayo and four alleged accomplices, including Supachai, to public prosecutors. The decision whether to prosecute Phra Dhammachayo will be announced on July 13.

Phra Theprattanasutee showed up for the third round of talks yesterday with his legal adviser Somsak Toraksa to announce that they would no longer provide counselling because the case has been handed to public prosecutors.

“Our duty ends. The rest depends on public prosecutors,” Somsak said.

DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said his agency would no longer seek help from the Sangha body to arrange Phra Dhammachayo’s surrender.

Phra Sanitwong Wuttiwangso, who heads the Dhammakaya Temple’s corporate communications bureau, said it was strange that the DSI had forwarded the case to public prosecutors while it was still being negotiated.

“We have suspected that some DSI officials may be biased against our abbot,” he said.

He also complained that the case against Phra Dhammachayo would greatly affect Buddhism in the country because it showed that any monk could face similar charges simply because of donations that are made openly.

“The abbot has never spent a single baht of the donated money on himself. He has used it for the construction of religious rites in line with the wish of donors,” he said.

Phra Sanitwong also emphasised that KCUC harboured no ill will against Phra Dhammachayo because the monk’s followers had already repaid the money.