Agarwala, J.

[1] Mushtaq and Kalwa, two boys aged 15 and 14 at the time of the commission of the offence, that is on 8-5-1950, were prosecuted under Section 376, I.P.C. on a charge of committing rape on a girl of 11 years of age.

[2] The prosecution case was that on 8-5-1950, in the afternoon while the girl Dropadi and her brother Rup Chand were digging earth from a village pond, these two boys coming from an adjoining village were grazing their cattle nearby. The brother Rup Chand went away home, and they took advantage of the girl being alone and felled her down and committed rape on her, one after the other. When the girl's brother returned, he heard the cries of his sister and on running up found one of the boys committing rape on her and the other holding her by the hands. He raised an alarm and the two boys ran away. Other people came on the scene and they gave a chase to the boys arid caught them and took them to the police station, where the first information report was lodged by Rup Chand on the same day at about 7-5 P.M.

[3] The defence of Mushtaq and Kalwa was that they had nothing to do with the matter and that they had been implicated on account of enmity, and it