Bangkok: Thailand's junta chief said the military is keeping such a close eye on ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra that she would be unable to eat a bowl of noodles without their permission.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a former army general, was justifying the decision to have soldiers search a convoy taking Yingluck to a ceremony for her ancestors in her northern hometown of Chiangmai earlier in the week. The following day she was pictured eating noodles in the town, a political stronghold of her wealthy but wildly divisive family.