JUDGMENT

Bhide, J. - The above sets of appeals arise out of three different cases in connexion with a series o? thefts of copper and brass scrap and engine parts in the Loco Workshop of the N.W. Ry. at Lahore, said to have been committed by a gang of which the appellants are alleged to be members. In one of the cases the accused persons were charged with being members of the gang under Section 401, I.P.C., and seven out of them were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment from 2 to 6 years with fine. In the other two cases, certain members of the gang were charged under Section 457, 457/109 and 411, I.P.C., with theft, abetment of theft or receipt of stolen property on specific occasions, and some of them were convicted and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. The material facts alleged by the prosecution were very briefly as follows:

Jan Mohammad, son of Pir Bakhsh, one of the appellants, who was employed as a Mistri in the Loco Workshop of the N.W. Ry., along with Mirdad and Khan Zaman who were also employed there and who were all acquainted with the ins and outs of the place organized these thefts. Jan Mohammad took into his confidence his friend Ghulam Ali (appellant) and