‘They knew I was innocent’: Men acquitted of 2006 Mumbai train blasts rue years lost in jail

Three weeks ago, Sajid Ansari got a break from prison life for the first time in 19 years – he was granted parole so his wife could get medical treatment.

Ansari had been sentenced to life imprisonment a decade ago by a special court that found him guilty in the 2006 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.

On Monday, as Ansari watched the proceedings of the Bombay High Court online from his home in Mumbai’s Mira Road neighbourhood, he expected to be sent back to the Nashik Central Jail soon.

But as the court acquitted him and 11 others of all charges, the 48-year-old was left with a rare feeling. “I am suddenly a free man,” he said.

In 2006, Ansari was 29. He ran a mobile repair store and an institute to train people in mobile repair and computer networks in Mira Road.

At the time, he had two cases against him because of his claimed involvement with the banned group, the Students’ Islamic Movement of India.

Every time a communal incident occurred or when a festival came up, Ansari would be picked up by the police and detained illegally for a few days, he said. The police called it preventive detention. “But eventually they would release me,” he said.

On July 11, 2006,...

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