Pricey pawing

PATHUM THANI: Udomdech Rattanasathien, Secretary to Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, led a team of department officials and police on a raid at another dubious treatment facility, also in Phatum Thani, on October 7. This raid followed complaints by a female patient that she had been sexually assaulted during treatment – by a well-known monk. The woman said her treatment by 51-year-old monk Phra Atikarnwinat Jittomano consisted of little more than being petted in a lewd manner, having her breasts fondled and being asked if she had menstruated. Adding insult to injury, she was also charged 3,000 baht or 4,000 baht a session. The treatment facility, in a shophouse in Klong Luang district, was billed as the Taksila Traditional Thai Medicine Clinic. All was going well until the inspection team arrived armed with a warrant. Phra Atikarnwinat and the clinic’s employees were charged with practicing medicine without a license. The investigation is now trying to determine if Phra Atikarnwinat, whose dhamma teachings are carried by several local radio stations, used his broadcasts as a form of advertising for the clinic. Phra Atikarnwinat at first denied that lewd and obscene behavior was part of his treatment, but his face went ashen when investigators played a covertly-recorded videotape of one of his treatment sessions.