Bollywood's Sanjay Dutt released

Dutt has a huge fan following in India

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, jailed for buying weapons from bombers who attacked Mumbai in 1993, has been released from an Indian prison.

Dutt, who was sentenced for six years last month by a special court, was given temporary bail by the Supreme Court earlier this week.

He was being held in a high security prison in the western city of Pune.

Dutt is the most high-profile of 100 people convicted in connection with the blasts which killed 257 people.

He was cleared of conspiracy, but found guilty of illegally possessing a rifle and a pistol.

Television pictures showed a smiling Dutt shaking hands with police officials and waving to fans who had collected outside the prison in Pune to see him on Thursday morning.

Dutt flew to Mumbai, where he lives, by a helicopter from Pune and joined his family members.

Temporary relief

Dutt's lawyers appealed for bail in the Supreme Court a fortnight ago.

On Monday, the court ordered the actor's release on the grounds that a copy of the judgement, passed by the special anti-terror court in Mumbai, was yet to reach the actor.

But court specified that the relief was temporary.

Hundreds of people were killed in the blasts

The judge said as soon as the actor received a copy of the Mumbai court order, he would have to surrender again and he would be sent back to jail.

Only after that could the actor file an appeal for bail and the matter would be considered on merit, the judge added.

Dutt, 48, is one of Bollywood's most bankable stars.

Although the actor had stopped signing new films for some time before his sentencing, there are a few films on the floor with him playing the lead.

"If he's out for, say 60 days, and shoots every day then he should be able to finish them," Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahata said.

"There is about 500 million rupees ($12m) riding on him," he said.

Dutt found fame playing gangsters and anti-heroes.

His trial generated huge interest among Bollywood fans across India.

The son of a Hindu father and Muslim mother, Sanjay Dutt said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993 that followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The Mumbai blasts were allegedly carried out by Mumbai's (Bombay's) Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for the riots, in which most of those killed were Muslims.