The case was registered in 1995 after Singh allegedly fired at the staff of a petrol pump at Anari, when they asked him to pay after his petrol tank was filled. When the police were called in and tried to intervene, he was said to have fired at them too.

Singh’s counsel pointed out in court that there was no statement of the petrol pump staff on record, nor was there a eyewitness account of policeman that said Singh fired at them. Last but not the least, no one was injured.

Singh, now 48, accuses the police of ruining his life. “It has been proved that I am innocent. By putting me behind the bars for 20 years, the police ruined my life and my family business,” he said.

Singh was in the real estate business when he first went to jail in 1989 — he doesn’t remember the case. When he lost his mother, he could not attend her last rites. And since he had been in jail, he had not been able to get married.

His lawyer Vivek Srivastava said they were planning to file a damages suit of Rs 1 crore against the state.

Singh said his problems began when he contested the Assembly election in 1989 from the Sarojini Nagar seat. An Independent, though he did not win, he garnered the second highest number of votes. This, he said, did not please some politicians, who saw him as an emerging threat.

One after the other, he was framed in criminal cases. In jail, he was often harassed and kept in isolation, said his brother Rakesh.