Kamla Sahai, J.

1. Both the appellants have been convicted under Sec.161, Penal Code. Appellant Nil Madhah Patnaik, who has filed Criminal Appeal No. 365 of 1953, has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and appellant Md. Yasin Ahmad Khan, who has filed Criminal Appeal No. 376 of 1953, has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months. As . both the appeals are directed against the same judgment, this judgment will govern them both.

2. Appellant Nil Madhab Patnaik was attached to Kandra Police outpost in Singhbhurn distinct as an assistant Sub-Inspector of Police. Yasin Ahmad Khan was attached to the same police outpost as a constable. Village Bikaneepur lies within the jurisdiction of that outpost.

3. The prosecution case is that the wife of Phagu Manjhi (P. W. 15), a resident of village Bikaneepur, was indisposed from 30-9-1952. It was sus- pected that she was a victim of witchcraft. The villagers, thereupon, went to village Dhatnidih in order to consult Gura Manjhi, who acted as a sakha (a man who drives out evil spirits). Gura Manjhi said that a ghost living in the bari of an old woman who was the elder wife of a man and who was