Following the arrest of YouTuber and Bigg Boss OTT 2 winner Elvish Yadav in connection with the suspected use of snake venom as a leisure drug, the Noida Police introduced on Wednesday that additional people have been apprehended.
The people who had been arrested have been identified as Ishwar and Vinay, each residents of Haryana, as stated with the aid of ANI.
Following the arrest of Elvish Yadav, the Noida Police has intensified its research. Last year on November 3, Elvish Yadav and 5 others were charged below the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) and Section one hundred twenty B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Sector 49 police station. They had been accused of providing snake venom to partygoers in Noida for leisure purposes. During the arrests, 9 snakes—5 cobras, one python, two sand snakes, and one rat snake—protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, along with a 20ml tube of snake venom, were recovered from the possession of the suspects.
On Sunday, Elvish Yadav, a resident of Wazirabad village in Gurugram, was arrested by the Noida police in connection with the case. He was subsequently remanded to 14-day judicial custody. Additionally, the police added charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act to the existing FIR after a forensic report confirmed that the 20ml liquid recovered from the five arrested suspects was venom from a krait.
Elvish Yadav’s legal team has claimed that the YouTuber was initially called to participate in the investigation as a witness. However, they assert that he was unlawfully detained and subsequently arrested.
“Since the case was registered in November, Yadav has cooperated with the authorities by appearing for questioning on five occasions after being summoned under Section 160 of CrPC. On Sunday, he was called in for questioning again, but was unlawfully detained by the police and falsely shown as arrested. Yadav was not even informed about the reasons or the alleged offence for which he was being arrested, which in itself is against the law,” stated Elvish Yadav’s lawyer, Prashant Rathi.
Rathi further explained that the offense for which the FIR was registered falls under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), and no such contraband (snake venom) was found in Yadav’s possession.
“Yadav was not even present at the alleged party, and no contraband under the WPA was recovered from him, which is widely known. Additionally, according to Section 55 of the WPA, only a government officer is authorized to take cognizance of an offense under this Act and file a complaint. However, in this case, a member of an NGO has filed a complaint, which constitutes a violation of the WPA,” stated Rathi.
