Judgment

RAGHUBAR DAYAL, J. This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh reversing, on State appeal, the order of the Additional Sessions Judge, Houhangabad, acquitting the appellant, and convicting him of an offence under S. 414, I. P. C.

2. Five bales, containing wollen shawls and mufflers despatched from Kanpur by the British India Corporation Ltd., Kanpur Woollen Mills Branch, Kanpur, and another bale despatched from Haimanpur to Kanpur, were loaded at Itarsi railway station on September 18, 1957, in Wagon no. C. R. 325. The lock of the wagon was found broken open at Pandhurna Railway Station at about 1.0 a. m. on September 20, 1957. On checking at Nagpur the aforesaid bales were found missing. One of the bales despatched from Kanpur was found lying the next morning near the railway line between railway stations Jaulkheda and Multai.

3. On September, 23, 1957 the house of one Gopi Nath, at Multai, was searched and certain articles, including some torn labels were recovered from that house.

4. The same day, the police found the appellant and a few other persons come out of Gopi Nath s house at Betul, whose front door was locked. Su