The Bollywood links in the sensational case of David Coleman Headley, the Pakistan-born US national arrested by the FBI for allegedly plotting terror attacks in India and Denmark, are getting stronger.
Days after filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt helped Mumbai police figure out Headley’s ‘Rahul’ connect, there are reports that actors Emraan Hashmi and Kangna Ranaut too knew the terror suspect through Rahul. While Hashmi reportedly had met Headley at a Mumbai pub in 2008, Kangna was reportedly introduced to the latter on the sets of Mahesh Bhatt’s Woh Lamhe.
Kangna, however, denies the allegations saying, “I have never met Rahul Bhatt, so where is the question of meeting anyone through him? I just know two people from the Bhatt camp — Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt. I don’t know who Headley is. I’ve never met him. These are fabricated stories. I’ll take legal action against the TV channel that started these reports, which have damaged my credibility.”
It is also being speculated that Headley was in touch with Hashmi till recently and used to meet him on the sets of his latest release Tum Mile. When contacted, Hashmi’s terse reply is, “All questions regarding the case should be directed to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).” However, Tum Mile director Kunal Deshmukh clarifies, “Headley never visited Emraan on our sets. People are fabricating stories to derive media mileage. My set was a closed set; even my parents couldn’t visit me there. Rahul Bhatt is not a suspect; he is a witness in the case. He is helping the investigating agencies. And why drag the film into this?”
{{/usCountry}}It is also being speculated that Headley was in touch with Hashmi till recently and used to meet him on the sets of his latest release Tum Mile. When contacted, Hashmi’s terse reply is, “All questions regarding the case should be directed to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).” However, Tum Mile director Kunal Deshmukh clarifies, “Headley never visited Emraan on our sets. People are fabricating stories to derive media mileage. My set was a closed set; even my parents couldn’t visit me there. Rahul Bhatt is not a suspect; he is a witness in the case. He is helping the investigating agencies. And why drag the film into this?”
{{/usCountry}}Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is anguished over the reports. “This is the theatre of the absurd. The media in generating news and breeding lies. Even a matter of national security is made into trivia by unnecessarily involving Bollywood in it. This is doing a lot of harm to the nation.”
Inputs from Rahul Sabharwal