Nearly two decades lost, a family fractured, and a city still without closure, the scars of the 2006 Mumbai train bombings remain, even as the men once blamed for the deadly attacks walk free.
Ansari, now 48, was one of 12 men convicted in 2015 for murder, conspiracy, and waging war against India over the 2006 train blasts.
The evening rush-hour attacks, carried out with pressure-cooker bombs hidden in bags beneath newspapers and umbrellas, killed 187 people and wounded hundreds more.
Five of the accused were sentenced to death, while the other seven, including Ansari, were given life imprisonment.
At the time of the blasts, Ansari was just 29, running a modest mobile and computer repair shop.
He was arrested soon after the explosions, reportedly accused of assembling the bombs and sheltering two Pakistani nationals.
But this week, a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court overturned the convictions, ruling that the prosecution had "utterly failed" to prove the men were responsible.
The prosecution appealed to the Supreme Court to halt their release, but it declined to intervene.
A bittersweet freedom
"It feels amazing to be free," Ansari said. "We are innocent."
Freedom, however, feels bittersweet for Ansari.
"My whole youth is gone. My family had to face financial troubles," he said.
His wife was pregnant when Ansari was arrested, leaving him to miss his daughter's entire childhood. In her early years, she wouldn't even come near him.
"As a dad who felt terrible that I could not hold my daughter," he said.
"I used to feel very helpless and think, Why do we have to go through all this when I am innocent?"
An apology
The 2006 attacks were initially blamed by India on a “Pakistan-based militant group”, although a little-known outfit, Lashkar-e-Qahhar, later claimed responsibility.
Pakistan has denied the allegations.
Prosecutors said the bombings were intended as revenge for riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left around 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
For Ansari, his years behind bars demand more than an acquittal.
"The agencies should be ashamed of what they did and should apologise to us," he said.
While his old mobile and computer repair shop is no longer an employment option, given the advances in technology since he was imprisoned, Ansari is aiming to rebuild his life.
He plans to finish the undergraduate law degree, which he enrolled in while in prison.
"I hope to put it to good use," he said.
