' The petitioners Bashir and Anwar were convicted on the 15th of August 1975 under section 382. P. P.
C. By a Magistrate Ist Class at Sheikhupura and sentenced to one and a half years' R. I. Each for allegedly attempting to steal on the night between the 10th and 11th of November 1972 some paddy from the stack in the field of Muhammad Ali complainant and for causing hint to Muhammad Hussain P. W. The son of the complainant when be woke up and thwarted along with a few others, the petitioners' attempt at theft. After injuring the said P. W. The petitioners are said to have escaped leaving the paddy behind.
' The appeal preferred to the Sessions Court against the conviction and sentence failed and it was dismissed on the 13th of October, 1976. Hence this revision petition.
2. A perusal of the record has revealed that the alleged offence was committed on a dark night.
The culprits had had their faces muffled. The witnesses identified the culprits as Bashir and Anwar (petitioners) only by their height and the contours of their bodies. It appears the main reason for suspecting the petitioners to be the persons involved in the commission of the crime in question was that the complainant had no other enemies. It is further evident from the record that no recoveries have been effected from the petitioners which might connect them with the crime. The conviction is based solely on the eye-witness account which, in the circumstances mentioned above, cannot be relied upon with any degree of confidence. A thief does not have to be the enemy of the person whose property be steals. Identification by the height or the general bearing of a person is-most suspect.
3. I am, therefore, of the opinion that the case against the petitioners is not free from doubt. The evidence led in defence lends further support to this doubt, to the benefit of which the petitioners are entitled as a matter of right.
4. I, therefore, accept this revision petition, set aside the conviction of the petitioners and the sentence passed on them. They are accordingly acquitted. The petitioners be released forthwith if not required in any other case.