David Headley loved Armani clothing, says Rahul Bhatt who knew him in Mumbai

Mumbai: Rahul Bhatt, actor and son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who met David Coleman Headley at a gym in Mumbai when the latter recced the city for the Lashkar-e-Taiba as it planned the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, says his "friend" from that time should have been handed the death sentence or been extradited to India and "left to rot in an Indian jail."

Headley, 52, was sentenced to 35 years in prison by a federal judge in Chicago, US, last night. He escaped life imprisonment or the death sentence by "cooperating" in the case. The Pakistani-American pleaded guilty to being part of the elaborate Lashkar plot to attack Mumbai; he lived in the city for several months and recced potential targets. On November 26, 2008, 10 Lashkar militants sneaked into Mumbai by sea from Pakistan and killed more than 160 people in multiple terror strikes in the city.

In Mumbai, Mr Bhatt told NDTV this morning, "Nobody will ever know who Headley is. He was a split personality, double faced." Mr Bhatt said he was exposed to the Headley who "loved good clothes, children, loved Indian women, not Dawood Gilani who had a sinister plan."

"He was also known as David Armani, because he loved Armani clothing. He also loved dogs, loved Indian food and everything about India," he said.

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Mr Bhatt, who says he feels "a sense of betrayal by a friend", has written a book with journalist S. Hussain Zaidi called "Headley and I". He says he wrote it because, ""Wherever I go people asked me about Headley, so I decided to pen it down."

"I knew a different David Headley. I didn't know the opposite side. It came to me as a shock...My life has two parts - before Headley and after Headley," he added.

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In 2009, as revelations emerged in the Headley terror plot after his arrest in Chicago, a mysterious name, Rahul, mentioned extensively in the Lashkar-e-Taiba operative's e-mails to handlers in Pakistan was identified as Rahul Bhatt, then a fitness instructor and a body builder.

Headley befriended Rahul at a gym; Mr Bhatt, the police said, had no idea of the man's real identity. He was extensively questioned by the police.