JUDGMENT

Le Rossignol, J. - On the 23rd May 1921 four Sikhs came to the bungalow where Mr Isemonger and Mr. Bow-ring, Police officers of Lahore were residing together and enquired for Mr. Bowring. On receiving the reply that Mr. Bowring was away and would not return that day the Sikhs went off, but their enquiries had clicited suspicion and they were followed to the Railway Station where three of them were found sitting on the platform. Two of them were arrested and the third disappeared in the confusion. The present case arises from this arrest and from the statements which they made to the Police. As the result of the investigations made by the Police upon their statements eleven persons namely Tota Singh, Tara Singh, Bala Singh, Amar Singh, Sepoy, Prom Singh, Narain Singh, Mota Singh, Jagat Singh alias Bijla Singh, Sarjan Singh alias Gur-bakhsh Singh, Amar Singh, Delhiwala and Kishen Singh (of these the last five were absconding) were sent up for trial. Of the six who were pre-sent at the trial Amar Singh, Sepoy, Prem Singh and Narain Singh were either acquitted or discharged whilst Tota Singh, Bala Singh and Tara Singh were found guilty on two charges and were sentenced under each charge to five years' rigorous imprisonment including three months solitary confinement, but it was directed that the sentences should run concurrently.

2. Tara singh and Bala Singh have acquiesced in their convictions and have not appealed, but Tota Singh has appealed to this Court against his convictions and sentences. He has been convicted of conspiring to murder Bedi Kartar Singh, Sardar Sunder Singh, Majithia, 'Mahant Basadt Das, Mahant Devi Das of Nankana, Mr. King and Mr. Bowring, under Sections 120 B and 302. Indian Penal Code, and also of conspiracy to import and possess secretly arms in contravention of Section 19 and 20 of the Arms Act.

3. The main incidents which the learned Magistrate has found proved and on which he bases his convictions are briefly that on the 9th and 10th of April 1921, at Amritsar a secret meeting of Akalis was held at which the appellant Tota Singh was present and that there it was resolved that the abovementioned notables and officers should be murdered, that Ganga Singh and Bela Singh should be the assassins and that Tota Singh was to collect arms from the Frontier, and that in furtherance of this conspircy between April 22nd and April 29th the appellant Tota Singh did take part and assist in the collection at Peshawar of two bombs some cartridges and a revolver.

4. The chief evidence in the case is furnished by no less than six approvers, namely, Chattar Singh, Gur-bakhsh Singh, Ganda Singh, Bur Singh, Sham Singh and Sarmukh Singh, and the line of attack adopted by the learned Counsel for the appellant has been to argue that, first of all, the story told by the approvers bears inherent marks of untruth, secondly, the approver's evidence is not corroborated in material particulars, thirdly, where there is evidence of corroboration, that evidence is unreliable. So far as the case of the appellant is concerned the chief witnesses to be considered are Chattar Singh, Gurbakhsh Singh and Ganda Singh approvers, and witnesses No. 33 Jumman, No. 34 Rashid and No. 68 Jaman Singh. From the learned Magistrate's judgment it is difficult to determine whether he finds that there is any corroborative evidence of the approver Chattar Singh's story that the appellants were present at the secret meeting of, April 9th and 10th. The Magistrate finds that Tota Singh's attempt to prove an alibi on those dates is a failure and I agree with him in his appreciation of the value of the defence evidence, but it remains to determine whether there is any evidence directly corroborative of Chattar Singh's statement that Tota Singh was a party to the conspiracy of the 9th and 10th April, and" Counsel for the Crown admits that apart from the evidence of Ganda Singh there is no corroboration. Ganda Singh, moreover, is himself an approver and from