Narain says charges trumped

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 9

Narain says charges trumped

NZPA—AAP Sydney ■ A New Zealand-born Indian faith healer and leader of a religious commune said that charges of unlawful detention, assault and kidnapping laid against him were trumped up by a lesbian he had evicted from the commune. The charges were made in the Waverley Local Court in Sydney, where New Zealand police executed extradition warrants against Armit Lal Narain, aged 50, who is wanted on charges of illegally detaining Nell Grace Arnitt and assaulting her and other commune members. He is also charged with kidnapping her by bringing her to Sydney in June last year. The alleged offences were said to have happened in New Zealand in 1983 and 1985. Narain was arrested in

Sydney on Saturday under a provisional warrant from the New Zealand police. Yesterday he was granted sAust2o,ooo ($27,000) bail by the Magistrate, Mr Henderson, who also ordered Narain to appear again on February 4 when the Court will decide if he is to be extradited. During a court appearance on Monday, the police alleged Narain threatened Ms Arnitt with a hot poker, beat her with pipes and kept her imprisoned in a pit in a garage. Narain had taken her off medication for epilepsy, claiming he could cure her, had thrown her into a pool while she was having an epileptic fit, refused her food and made her take cold showers, the Court was told.

Narain was also accused of chaining Ms Arnitt at night to stop her from escaping, and of mistreating a young child on the commune. Prosecuting, Mr Gary Cleary said yesterday that Narain had fled New Zealand in December, 1984, after discovering that charges were to be laid against him. Opposing bail, he said the police believed Narain might interfere with witnesses because of his previous hold over them as members of his commune. He said Narain would face 19 further charges in New Zealand — four alleging illegal detention, five assault, six cruelty to children, two indecent assault, and two more of assault. The charges had been brought by former memthe commune and

would be corroborated by independent witnesses, Mr Cleary said. Mr Roth Wall, for Narain, said the charges were “trumped up” by Ms Arnitt after Narain asked her to leave the commune because she was having a lesbian relationship with another commune member. Mr Wall said the father of one of the women in the lesbian affair was prepared to testify on Narain’s behalf, as was the father of the child Narain was alleged to have mistreated. Narain had been the victim of a political witchhunt since 1979, when he accused a high ranking police official of misappropriating Maori Affairs Department land, Mr Wall said. This had been “fuelled by a vicious media campaign over the lart?’ six $

years” which had resulted in his family and commune members being victimised. Since the news media attention, burning crosses had been placed on his front lawn, pigs’ heads had been thrown into his yard, petrol poured over cars and his family refused service in supermarkets.

Most of his "several thousand followers” were Maori and he had been accused of taking them away from their traditions and customs. Mr Wall said Narain was prepared to go to New Zealand when required to appear in Court, but his client did not want to leave Australia until then because he had received death threats. Narain was ordered to report daily to the police and to surrender his passport.