KANCHANABURI: A senior monk was defrocked and police immediately pressed an assault charge against him after an attack on a novice left the boy severely injured.
Luang Ta Suppachai Sutthiyano was defrocked by the abbot of Wat Look Kae in Tha Maka district before police took the 64-year-old man to Tha Maka police station.
- Earlier report: Temple novice in coma after alleged attack by monk
Pol Capt Amnat Chanbutr, the deputy superintendent of Lua Kae police station, then informed him that was being charged with assault. He was being interrogated and more charges were possible, he added.
Luang Ta Suppachai Sutthiyano will now again be known by his layman name, Suppachai Bunyalukka.
He and novice Wattanapol Sisawad, 9, lived at Wat Don Khamin in Tha Maka, where the attack took place on Saturday.
The former monk told police that he had lost his temper and used a stick to hit the boy after a nun at the temple complained that the novice had misbehaved.
Another novice at the temple said Wattanapol was also forced to sit in a basin filled with water for about three hours and stand up to be hit with a stick.
Sukanya Tunhin, the mother of the injured novice who filed the complaint with police, said she was devasted after seeing what had happened to her son. Although Mr Suppachai, the defrocked monk, had previously helped her family by giving her food, Ms Sukayna said she will not compromise on the case.
The boy is still in the ICU at Phaholpolpayuhasena Hospital in Muang district.
