• Story originally published by •Thai 'Ghost' Caller Arrested
Bangkok - Police have arrested a man believed to be the mastermind behind Thailand's great ghost swindle, police said on Thursday.Kitti Papasarobol, who produced a widely-viewed videotape in which he dressed as a monk and supposedly contacted a screaming ghost, was arrested late on Wednesday night on charges of cheating one of his followers out of 300 000 baht ($7700).
A video showing Kitti dressed as a Buddhist monk and contacting ghoulish figures, including one terrifying and real-looking howling spectre, has been shown repeatedly on television broadcasts in past weeks and has been the subject of in-depth articles in several newspapers.
The ghost in the video was extremely tall and skinny, wore no shirt and appeared in the video screaming and waving its arms in a forest at night.
After the release of the video, a number of people travelled to the area, in north-east Thailand's Udon Thai province, where the film was supposedly shot, to look for ghosts.
Before the video was released, a woman whom Kitti had told he could contact ghosts gave him approximately 300 000 baht so he could improve her fortunes through his spirit links, police said.
But when Kitti was exposed as a fake, the woman pressed charges against him for cheating her out of money, police said.
Police said they believed the "ghost" in the video was actually an acquaintance of Kitti standing on a box.
Kitti has denied the charge of cheating and has maintained he can genuinely contact ghosts. - Sapa-AFP
The wobbly, infra red video footage showing impossibly tall, ghoulish figures has been shown repeatedly on national news broadcasts over the past week, gripping a nation obsessed with the supernatural.
"I have assigned police to examine many points about the sighting, as there were certainly a lot of irregularities," said Colonel Panya Ma-men, the deputy provincial police commander.
"It was most likely an April Fools Day hoax," he added.
Col Panya said officers in north-eastern Udon Thani province's Kham Chanot Forest, 564 km from the capital Bangkok, saw two groups of people leaving the forest on April 1, the day the video was shot.
One group questioned at about 3 am told police they had come to make an offering to spirits in the forest.
A search of their bags revealed a video camera.
"I am not sure exactly why they did this," Col Panya said.
The ghostly figures, tall and skinny with no shirts, appeared in the video screaming and waving their arms.
The grainy, jumpy footage coupled with the night time sounds of the forest combined to provide a creepy effect.
With its crude lighting and raw footage look, the 1999 hit movie Blair Witch Project, produced for a pittance by virtual unknowns Daniel Myrick and Gregg Hale, returned tens of millions of dollars in profits for the young film-makers. -- AFP
