TV footage of Rahul Bhatt. (PTI)

Mumbai, Nov. 13: Suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba operative David Headley’s “Rahul” is not an actor or a politician.

He is a 28-year-old instructor in Five Fitness Club — an upmarket gym in Mumbai’s Juhu area.

Rahul is also the son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

Headley, according to Rahul’s sister, actress-producer Pooja Bhatt, once visited Rahul’s Bandra home, which he shares with mother Kiran.

But Headley, said Pooja speaking on behalf of mother Kiran, looked “a bit different from his passport picture that is being run everywhere”. Copies of Headley’s passport, which has the photograph of a balding man, were recovered by police today from two Delhi hotels where the arrested American had stayed in March this year.

Rakesh Maria, who heads Mumbai’s crime branch, said Rahul had contacted the police first after learning of Headley’s arrest last month and that the American had mentioned a “Rahul” in emails to Lashkar handlers.

“Though we have found no connection between Rahul and Headley apart from peripheral friendship, one cannot rule out the possibility of him being questioned again. The National Investigating Agency is likely to call him for questioning. His name has been used only to indicate the city of Mumbai. We have done a thorough check in the last three weeks on the Rahul angle,” said Maria.

Mahesh Bhatt told reporters today that he was not in a position to either “confirm or deny” whether his son was a friend of Headley.

But Pooja told The Telegraph that Headley, who was arrested last month from Chicago’s ’Hare Airport by the FBI, was a friend of her brother.

“My mother was alone at home at the time and Rahul was out when Headley, along with a close friend of Rahul called Vilas, had come looking for him. He (Headley) was a tall, strapping, muscular man with blue eyes and looked 35-40 years old. He was not bald as his passport pictures reveal him to be — he sported blonde hair and a pony-tail when he visited Rahul’s home last year,” said Pooja.

Pooja said that while they waited for Rahul, Kiran and Headley made small talk.

“He had a very heavy American accent and claimed to be a Vietnam War veteran, an ex-Marine looking for work in Mumbai” she said.

Vilas and Rahul were instructors at a Colaba gym some years ago. Rahul quit, but his friendship with Vilas continued. Headley frequented the Colaba gym where he came in contact with Vilas, who introduced the American to Rahul at a social do.

“Headley told them he was involved with immigration work which made them jokingly ask him whether he worked for the CIA. In reply Headley would always smile,” said Pooja.

Rahul’s mother Kiran was watching news on television the day the story of Headley’s arrest broke.

“It mentioned his name and his email which spoke of one ‘Rahul’. My mother thought it was too much of a coincidence and called out to Rahul who was in another room. They were not sure that the man in the pictures was the same man they knew, but had a bad feeling about it and decided to contact Rakesh Maria (joint commissioner of police) through my father,” said Pooja.

Pooja said Rahul, Vilas and Headley would often hang out together in lounge bars and restaurants or catch a movie together.

“Headley wanted a place to stay so Rahul introduced him to a broker in Bandra,” said Pooja.

The broker, Sunny Singh, who runs a real estate agency on Pali Hill, Bandra, has also been questioned by the police.

“Sunny knew Rahul, who used to be his instructor at Sykz (a gym on Pali Hill). He sent Headley to Sunny around June-July 2008, a few months before the 26/11 attack, with a woman called Anna. She did not look Indian, but I am not sure,” said Amit Singh, Sunny’s elder brother. The two brothers co-own the agency.