Hyderabad/New Delhi, Nov. 11 -- On January 15, 1994, a second-year pharmacy student paced down the road to his college in Karnataka. In another 15 days, he was to attend semester exams. That never happened. Instead, he spent his next 20 years in jail for a crime he never committed.

Then barely 20 years old, Nisar-ud-din Ahmad was picked up by the Hyderabad Police near his home in Gulbarga following a series of blasts on the intervening night of December 5 and 6, targeting six long-distance trains to mark the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition.

Among the six trains, three were Rajdhani Express trains (New Delhi-Howrah), the Surat-Baroda Flying Queen Express and the Hyderabad-New Delhi AP Express.

Two people died and atleas...