Why I travelled to Nagpur to read out a Bombay High Court verdict over a friend’s grave

On the evening of July 20, I was at home having dinner with my brother-in-law, Sajid Magroob Ansari. He was one of the accused in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts case – someone who has already spent 19 years in prison and was out on a 40-day parole for the first time after nearly two decades. As we ate together, a message suddenly flashed on my feed: the long-reserved judgment in the case, pending since January this year, would be delivered the next day.

Thirteen of us had been accused, among other charges, of terrorism, waging war against the nation and planting bombs in seven suburban trains in Mumbai on July 11, 2006. The explosions killed 189 people and injured 824.

In 2015, after nine years of being wrongfully imprisoned, I was the only one of the men accused in the case to be acquitted. When I was released, I decided that I would dedicate my life to ensuring the release of all the innocent people still implicated in the case.

On that July evening, as we waited for the verdict, hope and fear collided inside me. I did not know how to react – whether to expect relief or brace for yet another round of...

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