Wani, who was pursuing his Ph.D. in AMU’s Arabic department, was arrested from New Delhi on July 31 2001, and named as an accused in the case.

Lucknow: A court in Barabanki district on Saturday acquitted former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) research scholar and suspected Hizbul Mujahideen operative Gulzar Ahmed Wani of all charges in the 2000 Sabarmati Express blast case.

Mr Wani’s counsel, Prabhat Singh, said, “The court of additional sessions judge M.A. Khan acquitted Wani and co-accused Mubeen of all the charges due to lack of evidence.” Over a dozen people were injured after a bomb exploded on the Sabarmati Express in Barabanki district on August 14, 2000.

Mr Wani, who was pursuing his Ph.D. in AMU’s Arabic department, was arrested from New Delhi on July 31 2001, and named as an accused in the case. He was 28 years old at that time. A resident of Pattan in Baramulla district of north Kashmir, Wani, has been in jail since then.

Mr Wani was also accused of being a conspirator in 10 other cases of explosions and slapped with 14 FIRs in different police stations of Delhi, Maharashtra and UP prior to 2000 but was acquitted in all other cases as well. In April  this year, the Supreme Court termed Mr Wani’s custody spanning over 16 years without bail as a “shame”.

“He has been acquitted in 10 out of the 11 cases but still you want him to be in jail without bail,” a bench of Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud told the counsel for UP government, who opposed Mr Wani’s bail.