Elvish Yadav admits to arranging snake venom at rave parties: Sources

Chandigarh, March 18

Controversial Youtuber Elvish Yadav has admitted to arranging snakes and snake venom at rave parties organised by him, reports NDTV quoting police sources.

Yadav has also confessed during his questioning that he knew the other accused arrested for supplying snake venom last year, they said.

Yadav had earlier refuted the charges of involvement in the case and has been questioned by police in the past.

Elvish was arrested on Sunday by Noida police in connection with a probe into the suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug at a party here four months ago, officials said.

Yadav, a winner of reality show Bigg Boss OTT, was later produced in a special court in Surajpur which sent the 26-year-old social media influencer to 14-day judicial custody, they said.

He was among six people named in an FIR lodged at Noida’s Sector 49 police station on November 3 last year. The five other accused, identified as snake charmers, were arrested in November but are currently out on bail, the officials said.

The case was lodged under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Indian Penal Code sections 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 284 (negligent conduct related to poison that endangers human safety) and 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals), according to police.

Charges under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have also been added in the case in which Yadav, a resident of Haryana’s Gurugram, has been arrested, police said.

A sub-inspector, who was also the in-charge of Sector 49 police station where the FIR was registered, was shunted within days of the case being registered on the complaint of an official of animal rights group People For Animals (PFA).

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 had 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.

With PTI inputs