JUDGMENT

R. BANUMATHI, J.

This appeal by special leave arises out of the judgment dated 14.05.2012, passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad dismissing Criminal Appeal No.2 of 1981, confirming the conviction of the appellants under Section 396 IPC and also the sentence of ten years rigorous imprisonment imposed on each of them.

2. Case of the prosecution is that on the intervening night i.e. on 21/22.09.1979, the complainant-Patia Singh (PW1) was sleeping in his house. His brothers Saran Singh, Sukhbeer Singh and his children were sleeping in their house. Both the houses were adjacent to each other. In the midnight at about 1.00 o’clock, PW1-Patia Singh heard the noise of gun firing and in the light of torch, he saw that in the house of his brother Saran Singh, about 14-15 dacoits were looting the property and that two of them on the roofs and two dacoits were standing on the gate holding guns and they were continuously firing. All the inmates of the house witnessed the incident in the torch light and electric light emanating from tube well. On raising alarm, the villagers came out to help them and they were carrying torches and they warned the dacoits from behind the wa