( 1 ) THIS appeal by Asharfi and Ram Dhani against their conviction and sentence of life imprisonment each for an offence under Section 396. P. G. lias arisen in the following circumstances. Caya Prasad Kurmi was a well-to-do man of village Xakoli, police-circle jahanabad in the district of Fatchpur. He owned a large double-storeyed house, with a court-yard in the middle and an entrance door which at night used to be chained from the inside. On the night between the 29th and 30th January 1958, which was a moonlit one, Gaya Prasad was sleeping in the upper storey while the other inmates of the house slept in various rooms or varandahs on the ground floor. A lantern was burning in the upper storey and another in the court-yard. According to the unrebutted evidence of eye-witnesses, that night at about 11-30 p. m. a gang of about fourteen bandits, armed with pistols, daggers and other weapons, and carrying electric torches, raided the house. Some of the on scaled over the outer wall, jumped into the inner court-yard and opened the entrance door. Four of the robbers stood outside keeping guard, while the rest entered the house and startedl plundering the goods. They stripped