BERI, J.—This is an appeal directed against the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, Tonk, who convicted the appellant under sec. 2 of the Rajasthan Preservation of certain Animals Act, 1960, and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to a fine of Rs. 500/-.

2. The circumstances which give rise to this appeal are these.

3. On the 30th April, 1959, Mst. Rodi widow of Bajranga Gujar had gone in the town of Tonk to sell milk and curd. On her return she was informed by Kalyana and Rugha (P.Ws. 2 and 3 respectively) that her cow was stabbed by Nisar, the appellant. She saw the injured cow standing near Bhamor Gate, Tonk. Her daughters son Ramlal took the cow to the veterinary hospital where the cow received some sort of treatment but it died the next day. On the 1st May, 1950, one Gangaram informed the police that the son of Mohammed Ishaq alias Billo had stabbed a cow belonging to one Gyarasa Gujar. The injury so caused resulted in the death of the cow. On the post-mortem examination at the veterinary hospital it was found that there was an incised penetrating wound 1-1/2" long on the left lateral side 1-1/2" pos-tero-ventriclly from the point of haunch in susro-posterior direction. The posterior point being little ventricle to the anterior leading to a wound of 1-1/2" length and deep upto the abdominal cavity in autroventrical direction cutting through the muscles on the way. A number of other injuries were also found and in the opinion of the examiner the cause of death was toxemia due to peritonitis. The accused appellant was committed to and tried by the Additional Sessions Judge, Tonk. Amongst others the prosecution examined Kalyana (P.W. 2) who is a neighbour of Mst. Rodi. He stated that the day before the death of the cow he saw the cow coming out of the house of the father of the accused. It was followed by Nisar, the appellant, who had a big knife in his hand. He ran after the cow and gave a blow with his chhura to the cow. The chhura remained in the body of the cow. Nisar followed the cow running towards Bhamor Darwaza. The accused took out the knife (chhura) from the cows body at some place outside Bhamor gate and ran away. Rugha (P. W. 3) was also present at the material place and at the relevant time. Both Kalyana and Rugha chased Nisar right upto his house but they did not enter it as the occupants observed pardah. They, however, informed Mst. Rodi about the incident. These two witnesses identified the hide of the cow (Ex.1) in the court.

4. The accused-appellant set up a plea of alibi saying that at the time and on the date when he is alleged to have stabbed the cow, he was not in Tonk but was in Jaipur. He had examined four witnesses in support of this plea. One of them is Dr. Iqbal Singh, a retired medical man, who had issued a certificate (Ex. D. 3) to the accused-appellant dated 30th of April, 1959.

5. As already noticed the learned Additional Sessions Judge,Tonk, found it to be proved that Nisar had stabbed the cow belonging to Mst. Rodi as a result of which it died. He held him guilty under sec. 2 of the Rajasthan Preservation of Certain Animals Act, 1950 and sentenced him to 5 years rigorous imprisonment and to a fine of Rs. 500/-. He further directed that if the fine be realised a sum of Rs. 100/- therefrom be paid to Mst. Rodi by way of compensation.

6. The learned counsel for the appellant assailed this judgment on several grounds. He argued that the first information report did not contain the name of the accused-appellant; that there was great delay in lodging the first information report; the prosecution witnesses Kalyana and Rugha who have come to depose as eye-witnesses had merely heard of the incident as stated in the first information report and it is thus an important variation between the first information report and the prosecution case at the trial. The learned counsel also contended that the eye-witnesses are interested; their conduct unnatural and their statements b

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