The Australian police have said that Indian doctor Mohammed Asif Ali, who was released on Wednesday after being held in connection with the failed United Kingdom terror attacks, made an "unfortunate acquaintance" with his fellow doctor and compatriot Mohamed Haneef and almost ended up being branded a terrorist.
The police said Ali attracted the investigators' attention because he had agreed to mind some things for his friend, Haneef, also arrested in connection with the blasts.
Soon after his release, the media staked out his apartment, which is just two blocks from the Gold Coast Hospital where he worked.
When reporters managed to get Ali on his mobile phone, he begged to be left alone, saying he was extremely tired and just wanted to sleep. "I don't know anything," he said. The manager of his apartment block said the doctor was petrified.
He was unwittingly caught up in a manhunt after the police detained Haneef at the Brisbane Airport late on Monday on suspicion of having been in contact with members of a group involved in a British car bomb plot.
The police kicked in Ali's door the next morning, and spent the next day rifling through his apartment, and combing Haneef's car.
It was almost midnight before the police finished questioning Ali. Police sources described him as a man who had simply made an unfortunate acquaintance.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty had said Ali had not committed any crime, and was free to go about his business.
But the damage had already been done to Ali's reputation, his face plastered on tabloid newspapers, under headlines such as "the enemy within" and "terror link on our doorstep".
The manager said the apartment was left in shambles by the police, with fingerprint dust scattered over everything.
"The unit's a mess," he said.
After the ordeal, the Queensland Government offered Ali support. Premier Peter Beattie suggested it could be difficult for Ali to return to work at the hospital.
"Bearing in mind the amount of media focus on this and the attention on the hospital, Queensland Health will need to talk to him about whether this is an appropriate place for him," Beattie said on Wednesday.
The acting district manager of the Gold Coast Health Service, Brian Bell, said Ali was free to return to work. "The district will do everything it can to assist at this difficult time," he said.
Queensland's Health Minister Stephen Robertson said Ali's return to work would have to be handled sensitively.
"The problem is, unfortunately, this person has been named. It now appears he has had nothing to do with the allegations that have been bouncing around.
"You would then understand that he would find himself in a very difficult position, being so publicly identified, in my view, far too early," he said.
