YouTuber Elvish Yadav held in snake venom case, remanded in judicial custody

YouTuber Elvish Yadav was arrested on Sunday (March 17) by Noida police in connection with a probe into the suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug at a party, officials said. Yadav has now been sent to 14-day judicial custody.

A case under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 has been registered against him in Noida and five others for arranging snake venom for use as a recreational drug at a rave party held last year.

Yadav was first named in an FIR after the police raided a banquet hall on November 3 last year in sector 51 of Noida and arrested five people including four snake charmers and recovered nine snakes and poison. Besides, rave parties, it was alleged, snakes were also used by Yadav for video shoots.

Yadav was among six people named in an FIR lodged at Sector 49 police station on November 3 last year. The five other accused were arrested but are currently out on bail, the officials said.

The case was later shifted from Sector 49 to Sector 20 police station for investigation. "The accused has been arrested by a team of Sector 20 police station which was investigating the case," Additional DCP (Noida) Manish Mishra told PTI.

He has also been charged for criminal conspiracy under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code, they said.

Bigg Boss title winner

Yadav, a winner of reality show Bigg Boss OTT, has refuted the charges of involvement in the case and has been questioned by the police in the past. "Baseless, fake and not even 1 per cent true," he said.

A sub-inspector, who was also the in-charge of the local Sector 49 police station where the FIR was registered, was shunted.

The case was lodged on the complaint of an official of animal rights group People For Animals (PFA), headed by BJP leader Maneka Gandhi. After seeing videos of Elvish Yadav,  PFA called him up without revealing their identity and asked him to provide snakes and their venom. The 26-year-old allegedly gave the number of one Rahul, who asked them to come to the sector 51 banquet.

Snakes seized

Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 on November 3 and nine snakes, including five cobras, rescued from their possession while 20 ml of suspected snake venom was also seized.

However, police said Yadav was not present at the party hall and they were probing his role in the whole case of snake venom use as a recreational drug.

PFA chairperson and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi has accused Yadav of involvement in illegally selling snake venom and sought his immediate arrest.

On November 4, Yadav was briefly stopped for questioning by police in Rajasthan's Kota while he was travelling with his friends in a car but was let off soon.

With agency inputs