In a criminal case, the prosecution must prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. If there is a genuine doubt regarding the correctness of the case, the accused must be acquitted.

1. - This is a State appeal against the order of acquittal passed by the First Class Magistrate, Ratangarh on 23.5.70 acquitting all the four accused persons namely, Kanaram, Nanda, Birdaram of the charges under section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and Ramlal of charge under section 411 of the Indian Penal Code.

2. A theft in the house of Surja P.W. 1 was committed on the night between 18th and 19th of July, 1968 by breaking open the lock of a Kothi and ornaments belonging to his daughter Mst. Sanna P.W. 2 were taken away by the thieves. Surja when he got up in the morning found that the lock was broken. He also discovered the foot prints of a person who was putting on the 'Chappal'. He tried to trace out the person who had committed theft at his place by the track of the foot prints and he reached the house of Kanaram. Accused Kanaram was not found in the village, therefore, Surja & his son Nanu went to Ratangarh in search of Kanaram. They found Kanaram at the shop of Dwarka Prasad Sunar P.W. 3. When they reached the shop of Dwarka Prasad they discovered that Kanaram intended to dispose of a 'Tewta' to him, bu he refused to purchase it as he did not deal in the ornaments. Immediately Kanaram was taken by Surja and his party to the police station Ratangarh where first information report Ex. P/1 was lodged by Nanu P.W. 5. The recovery of 'Tewta' was made from the possession of Kanaram and the recovery memo Ex. P/2 was prepared. The Police party then came to the spot of occurrence. Mst. Sanna P.W. 2 then informed the Police party that her ornaments which were kept in a 'Bajre-Ki-Handi' were also lost. The police arrested the accused who vide his information Ex. P/10 disclosed the whereabouts of 'Kanthla' which was recovered at his instance at the house of Ramlal Sunar on 20.7.68 vide Ex. P/11. Sixteen loose 'manias' of 'Galsari' were also recovered from the house of Kanaram in pursuance of the information given by him. Birdaram another person who was involved in this affair was arrested and also 9 loose 'manias' of Galsari were recovered at his instance. The lock was also seized by the police but the seizure memo Ex. P/4 does not disclose whether the lock was found broken or it was opened with a key. Ther ornaments were put up for indentification by the Tehsildar P.W. 10 Shri Khinv Karan and they were identified to be that of Mst. Sanna by P.W. 2 Sanna, P.W. 1 Surja, P.W. 5 Nanu and P.W. 8 Hazari who is said to have made these ornaments. These ornaments were correctly identified at the trial by all these witnesses to be that of Mst. Sanna.

3. The prosecution produced 13 witnesses to prove its case, but the learned trial Magistrate after carefully examining the prosecution witnesses found various discrepancies which created doubt in his mind that the case has been wrongly foisted on the accused persons to wreak vengeance. As many as 20 points were given by the learned Magistrate to disbelieve the prosecution case and acquitted all the accused persons of the charge. The learned Magistrate, however, ordered that 'Tewta' may be returned to Mst. Sanna but with regard to other ornaments he observed that the order for the return of these ornaments shall be passed after inquiry.He also issued a notice to Surja Complainant under section 250 of the Code of Criminal Procedure why special damages may not be awarded for having taken frivolous proceedings against the accused persons.

4. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the State and the complainant Surja Ram read out the judgement of the trial court and pointed out that the trial court has based its inferences mainly on conjectures and not on facts. It was also argued that the trial court has ordered the return of the 'Tewta' to Surja, but the other ornaments which have not been claimed by the accused persons to be their own have not been returned to the complainant inspite of the fact that they were correctly identified by Mst. Sanna, Surja, Nanu and Hazari to be that of Mst. San