NEW DELHI: Coming from the educated family of a government employee from Baramulla district of J&K, 28-year-old Gulzar Ahmed Wani was pursuing research in Arabic in 2001 when he was arrested as an accused in 11 cases of bomb blasts that rocked UP and Delhi on eve of Independence Day the previous year.But trial courts spread across Delhi and UP disbelieved the evidence brought against him by police of both states, acquitting him in one case after another. On Friday, he was acquitted in the last one — the Sabarmati Express train blast case — by a court in Barabanki in UP due to lack of evidence.When his counsel Irshad Hanif argued for his bail last month in the Supreme Court, a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar had asked the trial court to finish the trial expeditiously while taking an unprecedented decision to grant him bail at a future date — November 1. The court said if the trial was not completed, Wani would be released on bail that day.Wani has finally come out clean, but paid a heavy cost. He was 28 years old at the time of arrest.Today he is 44. Wani spent 16 years behind bars for crimes the trial courts found he had not committed.After Wani’s acquittal in the last of the 11 cases, his counsel Irshad Hanif raised important questions: “Who will compensate Wani for the 16 years he lost in jail? Will the government fasten accountability on the police officers who implicated him in the 11 cases? How will the government pay back the family?”“If the prosecution does not complete the examination of witnesses by October 31, Wani will be released on bail on November 1, 2017 on the terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court,” it had ordered.After his acquittal in the case, Wani does not need benefit of this unprecedented order. CJI Khehar could not hide his exasperation at the ineptitude shown by UP and Delhi police. “What a shame! He has been acquitted in 10 out of 11 serious cases slapped on him. No credible evidence has been found against him by the trial courts. The problem with police is they keep persons in jail and not lead evidence against them in court,” he said on April 25.