Phra Dhammachayo has earlier this year faced another arrest warrant for money laundering and accepting ill-gotten gains.

Pitipat, the lead investigator in the encroachment case, said the latest arrest warrant for Phra Dhamachayo was issued on Monday.

The Dhammakaya Temple yesterday dismissed the encroachment allegations and accused those involved of slandering the abbot.

The plot of land in question is located in Loei’s Phu Rua district, but is not part of the compound of Dhammakaya Temple’s Suan Pa Himawan facilities, according to the temple.

The Suan Pa Himawan facility spans 129 rai (20.6 hectares) of land nearby, the temple said.

“The allegedly encro-ached land plot does not belong to us. And even Suan Pa Himawan is not Phra Dhammachayo’s property,” the Dhammakaya Temple’s communications division announced yesterday.

Pitipat said the site’s caretaker, Sakchai Mongkholkhekha, had turned himself over to police to face charges yesterday.

The caretaker faces a charge of conspiring to encroach upon forestland, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of Bt50,000.

Pitipat said the arrest warrant for the abbot had been sent to police precincts nationwide and that the case should be concluded by next month.

The move followed an operation by police and officials on July 14, led by deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, to reclaim the site of Suan Pa Himawan in Phu Rua district, where people in the Dhammakaya network had allegedly built on encroached forestland. The subsequent investigation reportedly uncovered the allegedly illegal issuance of a “Nor Sor 3 Kor” land-rights document to Phra Dhammachayo for a 129-rai plot, including 45 rai of the Phu Pueai Forest Reserve and areas in the Phu Khithao and Phu Rua forests.

Pitipat said that the site originally comprised 10 plots of land covering 84 rai with each plot having a Nor Sor 3 Kor document. The plots were then combined into one plot under a new Nor Sor 3 Kor document, with an additional 45 rai of forestland added, he said.