Wat Phra Dhammakaya is facing 68 more lawsuits from police, bringing the number of legal cases against the embattled temple to 111.
Deputy police spokesman Krisana Pattanacharoen on Friday confirmed that police have lodged additional lawsuits against Wat Phra Dhammakaya and people affiliated with the temple.
However, a plan to raid the temple's compound to arrest the founder and former abbot, Phra Dhammajayo, was thwarted because the final search warrant expired yesterday.
The monk is wanted on charges of money-laundering and receiving stolen property in connection with the multi-billion-baht Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) embezzlement scandal, and alleged forest encroachment by the temple's meditation facilities in the provinces of Nakhon Ratchasima and Loei.
Pol Maj Woranan Silam, deputy spokesman of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), yesterday refused to comment after the DSI's failure to raid the temple.
He said DSI chief Paisit Wongmuang will more give information if new developments emerge.
A DSI source said that the DSI did not raid the temple under the warrants approved by the Criminal Court, valid from Dec 13-16, one for each day, because it wanted to avoid clashes with temple followers who turned up in large numbers as "human shields".
However, the DSI and police will resort to legal measures to keep up pressure on the temple, the source said, adding that DSI investigators can continue to request fresh search warrants, though they must supply the court with good reasons for them.
Phra Sanitwong Wuttiwangso, director of communications for Wat Phra Dhammakaya, took to Facebook to criticise the plan by police to cut off power and water supplies to the temple.
Such a move would be a form of torture and a gross violation of human rights, the monk wrote.
"Currently, there are tens of thousands of monks, novices and people in the temple. Cutting off power supplies will cause damage to their lives and properties. If anyone in the temple is harmed, suits will be filed against those responsible," the monk wrote.
The DSI deployed small drones to spy on the compound of Wat Phra Dhammakaya yesterday. They launched two drones in front of Gate 7 of the vast temple complex about noon.
About five minutes after takeoff, one of the drones stalled and hurtled down from the sky.
As an official ran out to catch it, the drone landed on his head, with one of its spinning propellers inflicting a deep cut that bled profusely.
Pol Col Krisana said that police will consider again whether to seek court approval for a fresh warrant to search the temple, though "It is up to the national police chief."
Of the 68 fresh cases brought against the temple, 61 involve unauthorised construction of buildings; the others relate to the temple's electric cabling encroaching on public places, a police source said.
Police are already pursuing 43 lawsuits against the temple. The cases include building public bridges to control access to the temple, using containers to block public routes, driving passenger vans and buses on unauthorised routes, unauthorised construction of seven condominiums in the temple's compound, and the digging of artesian wells.
On Thursday, police and officials from the Department of Groundwater Resources, armed with a court-issued search warrant, inspected the artesian water system on Wat Phra Dhammakaya's premises.
The move came after the Royal Thai Police's Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division brought a fresh charge against temple personnel for digging artesian wells illegally.
During Thursday's search, officials found a pumping station for drawing water from an artesian well, a water pipe, as well as a water storage facility.
Authorities also found that some buildings in the temple compound are alleged to have been constructed illegally in violation of the Building Act, the Factory Act, the Public Health Act, and the environment law, the police source said.
The police source said that Wat Phra Dhammakaya covers at least 2,196 rai.
Of the area, 2,000 rai is under the jurisdiction of the Tha Klong municipality of Pathum Thani's Klong Luang district, while the 196 rai, the target of the search warrant, is under the supervision of the tambon Klong Sam administrative organisation.
Police are looking to cut off the temple's power and water supplies to put pressure on it, the police source said, adding that checks with the Provincial Waterworks Authority's office in Pathum Thani found that the temple never sought permission to use tap water, and it has likely been drawing water from artesian wells.
