Indian authorities are trying to identify a “prominent Indian actor” called “Rahul” allegedly named by Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operative David Headley, 49, recently arrested in the US by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Headley was in July told by his Lashkar handler in an email to say “Hi to Rahul”, according to a complaint filed by the FBI in a Chicago court on October 11. Headley told the FBI Rahul was “the first name of a prominent Indian actor”.

Indian security agencies suspect a well-known actor known as Rahul in Bollywood circles could have been a target.

In another email, Headley and his handler mentioned “lady naipaul”. The FBI said they were discussing author V. S. Naipaul’s wife, Nadira, a Pakistani journalist. Her brother, General Amir Faisal Alvi, was killed in 2008 in Islamabad by Major Haroon, a man said to be close to the Lashkar and referred to in the email as “friend Harry”.

Headley, a US national, was arrested on October 3. He was trained by the Lashkar, the Pakistan-based group accused of carrying out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, said the complaint.

His original target was the Copenhagen office of a Danish newspaper that had carried a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad, creating a controversy in 2005, but the Lashkar had begun using him against India.