Amritsar:
Wasil Khan spent eight years in an Amritsar jail, branded a Pakistani national. A resident of Bihar, Wasil was arrested near the Punjab border and accused of plotting a bomb blast.
He kept telling the Punjab police that he was an Indian, and had a family back in Champaran, but no one listened.
Today he walked free after the authorities finally investigated his story, under court orders.
"All the cases was false against me...They even branded me Pakistani, but now I am happy that I am out of jail and going back home," said Wasil.
"After we found that he was an Indian national, he was handed over to his family...initially when he was shifted to our Jail from Nabha, we were told that he was a Pakistani national," said Balbir Singh, Deputy Superintendent, Amritsar Jail.
Instead of checking his claim, the authorities contacted the Pakistan government for his repatriation, but they said he was not a Pakistani. Yet, it was only after Amritsar's Deputy Commissioner took up his case and moved court, that his luck turned.
And so on Friday, Wasil was finally reunited with his sister. For years, his family had no idea where he was.
"We were waiting for this. We are very happy. Now we will take him back and get him married," said Mohazra Khatoom, Wasil's sister.
Wasil, who left home after a fight, is finally returning after almost a decade, but the question - who will account for his lost years in jail, still remains unanswered.