Ex-Bollywood actress is released

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Former Bollywood actress Monica Bedi has been released from jail a day after she was given bail by a special court.

A smiling Bedi stepped out of the Chanchalguda jail, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, 20 months after she was incarcerated.

She had been convicted and sentenced in a case of passport forgery.

Bedi was extradited from Portugal in 2005 along with Abu Salem, a prime suspect in the 1993 bombings in Mumbai that killed more than 250 people.

The two were arrested in Portugal in 2002.

The prosecution said Bedi and Abu Salem secured passports from India's Andhra Pradesh state with false information.

Bedi's lawyers have always denied that she was Abu Salem's girlfriend. They said she had been held hostage.

Initially it was difficult, but later I adjusted to the life in prison. There was no other way Monica Bedi

A confident and relaxed looking Bedi walked through the huge iron gates of the jail, accompanied by her father and uncle.

The special court in Hyderabad issued her release orders on Tuesday, but as the orders could not reach the jail superintendent during office hours, her release was delayed by a day.

A crowd of curious onlookers gathered outside the jail on Wednesday morning as word spread about her release.

Bedi was released after her father paid the bail amount of $600 (25,000 rupees) in the special court.

Bedi also gave an undertaking that she would not leave her village [Chabbewal in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab] without informing the local police.

"Initially it was difficult, but later I adjusted to the life in prison. There was no other way," she told journalists after her release.

Asked about her future plans, Bedi said her top priority would be to spend time with her family.

Bedi said she had received several offers both from the Hindi film industry in Mumbai and the Telugu film industry in Hyderabad.

"I will return to Hyderabad to work here," she said.

The BBC's Omer Farooq in Hyderabad says Bedi hit the big time after she became a "friend" of the underworld don Abu Salem who had considerable sway over Bollywood.

Authorities in India say that Mr Salem, an Indian Muslim, is a key associate of India's "crime lord" Dawood Ibrahim - wanted in connection with the Mumbai (Bombay) train bombings of 1993.

Abu Salem also faces murder, extortion and kidnapping charges in a number of cases.