Mohammed Akram, who was detained by police in connection with the Mumbai bomb blasts, was freed, official sources said Monday. Akram was released Sunday night after furnishing a personal bond, four days after he was picked up from his native Dengra village and kept under detention for his striking resemblance with the sketch of one of the blast suspects flashed on TV news channels, Superintendent of Police Amit Jain told PTI.

Jain said the man, who runs a madarsa (Islamic seminary) in Mysore, has been released after verification of the statements he had made about his antecedents. "Still, he will be kept under watch," Jain said.

Akram, who was picked up from his village on Thursday, was subjected to hours of interrogation but he had kept on claiming innocence. Though the Gaya police initially detained Akram for his resemblance with one of the blast accused, its suspicion of Akram's terror links grew stronger as during his seven-year stay in Lucknow he was reported to have come into close contact with a SIMI activist, Faiyaz.

The fact that Akram's sister was married to a person of Pelawal village in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district where three suspects of the year 2002 attack on U S Consulate in Kolkata were killed in a police encounter, also made police suspicious about his possible terror links, police said.