Judgment

GROVER, J. :- This is an appeal by special leave from a judgment of the Bombay High Court by which the conviction and sentence of the appellant under S. 379, Indian Penal Code, have been upheld.

2. The first information report resulting in the taking of proceedings against the appellant was lodged at 11.15 a.m. on June 12, 1966 by Mansukhlal Vallabhdas at V. P. Road police station, Bombay. According to him a theft of 4 diamonds nose studs valued at Rs. 900/- had been committed by picking his pocket while he was travelling in a bus on that very morning. He boarded the bus at Thakurdwar and had to stand on the footboard because there was no sitting accommodation available inside. The appellant and two other persons stood near him on the same footboard. When he got down at Prarthana Samaj Bus Stop he felt that the pocket of his underwear in which he had kept the packet containing the four diamond nose studs had been cut and the packet was missing. He got down from the bus and walked back in the direction of Thakurdwar. He saw another bus plying on route No. 126 passing towards Prathana Samaj in which he noted that the appellant was travelling. He got down and boarded that bus a