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Muslim arrested for 'making up BNP kidnap story'
Tim Stewart03.09.09
A Muslim community leader who claimed he had been kidnapped at knifepoint after a BNP hate campaign has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Noor Ramjanally, 36, of Valley Hill, alleged in August that he was abducted by two men, bundled into a car boot, driven to Epping Forest in Essex and told to stop his religious work.
The BNP had been accused of whipping up racial tensions in the area after it issued an inflammatory leaflet about Mr Ramjanally's Islamic community group, the first in Loughton.
His alleged ordeal became a cause célèbre among the Muslim community after it was reported in national press.
But today, Mr Ramjanally was himself arrested amid suggestions that he made the whole incident up.
He had also alleged that his Loughton home was firebombed in July and that he had received hate mail threatening his family.
Recalling the alleged abduction, he said: “I have got the whole UK Muslim community behind me now. I am not just on my own.”
After the alleged arson attack, high-profile community figures, including Loughton Mayor Ken Angold-Stephens, religious leaders, teachers and members of the police attended the hall where he holds prayer sessions in a show of support.
Mr Ramjanally, who was involved in organising Friday jumu'ah prayer sessions in the town's Murray Hall community centre, had claimed he feared he was about to be murdered when the car stopped and one of the kidnappers said Let's do it here.”
The pair were then said to have marched him deep into the forest before warning him: “We don't want the Islamic group in Loughton'.
The father-of-one said he thought the attack had been inspired by the BNP. He said: “I thought that my life was over.
“They just said Get out' and walked with me for two or three minutes into the forest.
“[When] we were deep into the forest. They said: We don't want the Islamic group in Loughton. I feared for my life. They said, If you don't stop, we'll come back'. Then they disappeared.” He said he then used a passer-by's mobile to dial 999.
An Essex police spokesman said: “Police were contacted on 24 August by a man who stated that he had been abducted from his home in the Valley Hill area of Loughton. [Today] police arrested a 36 year-old man from the town on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.”
