Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says his son Rahul, who came into the spotlight for his acquaintance with David Coleman Headley, would like to see the 26/11 accused brought to justice.
"Rahul is a brave citizen who volunteered to help the investigating agencies on his own. He too, like the 26/11 victims, would like to see Headley brought to justice," the noted Bollywood personality and social activist told PTI on Wednesday.
"Just when we thought that the worst was behind us, after the utterances of Headley in a Chicago court, where he said Rahul and Vilas Varak (who, along with Rahul, trained the LeT operative Headley in the Moksh gym) did not know about his designs and what he was up to in Mumbai, a new allegation is now being hurled at my son, based on his media interview," Bhatt said.
"Let me elaborate what Rahul's stand is. Rahul unhesitatingly called David Coleman Headley the jackal of the 21st century. He regrets having met a person like Headley who was the architect of the worst tragedy that Mumbai experienced in recent times.
"But it is also a fact that he refuses to believe that Headley was not a CIA agent. Rahul has been saying this from the word go to the NIA, to the IB and to the Mumbai police that Headley was a brilliant mind who had an in-depth knowledge of too many things," he said.
"Never did Rahul get a hint from Headley that he had areligious fanatic buried somewhere within him. Based on Rahul's personal experience, Headley could not have been a jihadist who had taken up to arms after listening to a passionate speech of a maulavi," Bhatt said.
"But there is no denying the fact that the evidence the NIA and various US investigating agencies have gathered screams out loud that Headley later became a part of the LeT," he said.
"Was Headley a rogue agent? Was he a double agent, is something that only time will reveal. That is, if we finally get to the bottom of the truth. As of now, let me clarify on behalf of my son that he is not an apologist for Headley and his likes," the filmmaker said.