While pepper sprays are a great means of self-defence for women, they are being used by criminals to subdue their victims and rob them.

Sold by online retailers in different sizes, the use of pepper sprays by miscreants have left the police confused as to which precise criminal code section they should invoke. IPC Section 392 applies to robbery, while Section 394 deals with voluntarily causing hurt in committing crime.

Legal and medical experts believe that the use of pepper sprays should invite Section 394, though the police often apply the less severe Section 392. A case handled by the Madiwala police is an apt example.

Madiwala incident  

Two bike-borne men waylaid a 43-year-old accountant, sprayed him with pepper and robbed his gold valuables worth Rs 2 lakh. The incident happened in the Silk Board junction in the early hours on Friday.

Vijayraj M, a resident of Vivek Nagar, had been to the Horanadu Annapoorneshwari temple on a pilgrimage with his family on May 8. He returned to the city during the early hours of May 11.

After alighting the bus at the Silk Board junction around 4 am, Vijayraj and his family members were walking towards the Madiwala bus stop, close to the police station.

At Mori junction towards Dollars Colony, two men on a bike stopped Vijayraj and, under the pretext of asking for an address, sprayed what seemed like a chemical on his face.

"I held on to his hand and turned my face away on reflex. The contents of the spray hit my chin and shoulder, and I began to feel a burning sensation. They took the opportunity to snatch away my chains," Vijayraj told DH.

He raised an alarm, but before his family members — who were walking ahead — could rush back to rescue him, the suspects sped away with the chains, weighing 70 grams. Vijayraj lodged a complaint at the Madiwala station, where the police registered a case under Section 392, and are on the lookout for the suspects.