Bathing in blessed water to wash away bad luck does not sound especially alarming. In Thailand, where religious practice, local custom and folk belief can overlap in everyday life, rituals of protection or purification are hardly unusual.
But on February 12, 2026, women went to Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) with allegations involving an undertaker in Ang Thong Province, central Thailand. They said they had undergone bathing rituals intended to remove คุณไสย (khun sai), a Thai term commonly associated with harmful magic, sorcery or “black magic,” and that sexual acts had occurred during those rituals without their consent.
On March 2, the man was arrested in Song District, Phrae Province, on seven arrest warrants issued by the Criminal Court. As investigators and local authorities examined the case, another issue emerged beside it: an infant cemetery located within the grounds of the temple where he had worked.