Pepper Spray A Dangerous Weapon, Can't Be Used For Self Defence: Karnataka HC

The high court refused to quash a criminal case against a couple.

The Karnataka High Court refused to quash a criminal case against the director of a private company and his wife after they were accused of using pepper spray on a man for self-defence. The court has called pepper spray a dangerous weapon and has ordered an investigation into the case. The order was passed on April 22 by a single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna in a petition to quash criminal proceedings against a director of C Krishnaiah Chetty and Company Private Limited and his wife.

The case reportedly came into the court after an injunction was obtained against the director to restrict his movement around the walls and the partitions of a disputed property. When the employees of the person who got the injunction went to seal the gates of the property with a wall, the director and his wife allegedly entered into an altercation with them. To defend themselves, the couple sprayed the pepper spray on the man.

The counsel representing the director and his wife argues that the pepper spray was used as self-defence and in the process, they sustained a knee injury. They registered a criminal complaint against the party. The following day, a complaint alleging the use of pepper spray was registered by the victims. The counsel of the director and wife argues that such a criminal case should be quashed as it holds no merit. To this, the opposing party requested the bench to investigate the criminal case and said that pepper spray comes under the definition of deadline weapon in the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

To this, the Karnataka High Court bench stated, “(She) could not have used pepper spray as private defence, as prima facie there was no imminent threat or danger caused to her life. Therefore, the case at hand would require investigation in the least”. As quoted by Live Law.

The bench said that pepper spray would indeed be a dangerous weapon after citing a precedent in the US where such chemical weapons are considered harmful.

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