New Delhi: Popular YouTuber and Bigg Boss OTT winner Elvish Yadav has reportedly confessed to having arranged snakes and snake venom for rave parties organised by him in National Capital Region (NCR).
Elvish, who hails from Gurgaon, was arrested on Sunday by Noida Sector 20 police in connection with using and selling snake venom as a recreational drug. He has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.
Contradicting his earlier statement, the YouTuber reportedly admitted during police interrogation that he knew all the accused arrested last year on charges of supplying snake venom. They met at rave parties and were in contact. “We have found substantial evidence against Elvish Yadav and his involvement in supplying snake venom,” Noida police sources told NDTV.
In November 2023, Gautam Buddh Nagar police had arrested five persons, including four snake charmers, during a raid on a banquet hall in Noida on basis of a complaint lodged by an animal welfare activist Gaurav Gupta in Sector 49 Noida police station. Nine snakes and snake venom were also seized.
This followed a sting operation conducted by People for Animals to expose the misuse of rare animals and it was alleged that Elvish facilitated the procurement of snake venom for one such party held in Noida’s Sector 51. And the samples seized confirmed that the venom of cobra and krait species of snakes was used at the party.
The five accused – Rahul Yadav (32), Teetunath (45), Jaikaran (50), Narayan (50) and Ravinath (45) from Moharband village in southeast Delhi’s Badarpur – are on bail now.
Elish along with them were booked under sections of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, according to the FIR.
He now faces charges under Section 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, which deals with drug-related conspiracies like buying and selling. Bail is not easily granted under this law, the NDTV report added.
