NEW DELHI (AP) — Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt walked free Thursday after completing his five-year prison sentence for illegal weapons possession in a case linked to the 1993 terror attack in India's financial capital Mumbai.

Dutt's wife Maanyata and noted filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani greeted the actor as he came out of the prison gate in the western city of Pune. He saluted the Indian national flag at the prison building.

Dutt thanks his fans, including some who came in person to see him, for their support. "There is no easy walk to freedom, my friend," he told reporters before leaving for the airport to take a chartered plane to Mumbai.

Dutt, 56, is expected to resume his film career soon.

He was convicted for illegal possession of weapons linked to the 1993 terror attack, when 13 powerful bombs packed into cars and scooters exploded over a two-hour period across Mumbai. The bombs killed 257 people and injured 720.

Prosecutors said Dutt's guns and the weapons used in the terror attack came from underworld gangs involved in the bombings. Dutt has said he knew nothing about the bombing plot and wanted the guns to protect his family after receiving threats during the religious riots that preceded the bombings. His mother was Muslim and his father Hindu.

His mother Nargis Dutt and father Sunil Dutt also were top Bollywood actors.

Sanjay Dutt became wildly popular for his Hindi film roles as a reformed thug who follows the teachings of pacifist freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi.