Elvish Yadav-Snake Venom Case: Noida Police Arrest Two More as Investigation Intensifies

Elvish Yadav has been sent to a 14-day judicial custody after Noida police arrested the YouTuber on Sunday in the snake venom case. The police have made more arrests in the case now.

Noida: Three days after arresting Elvish Yadav, the Noida Police made more arrests in the case on Wednesday. The police official confirmed that they arrested two more people in the case involving Elvish who allegedly supplied snakes to a party organised in November last year at Sector 51 in Noida. The police identified the two as Ishwar and Vinay as they nabbed them for questioning on Wednesday. Both the accused are residents of Haryana, stated a report published in the news agency ANI.

Elvish has been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code after his name cropped up following the arrests of a few people in the rave party case. The police recovered five cobras, a python, two two-headed snakes, a rat snake protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and 20ml of snake venom from the party which was being used for recreational purposes. During Elvish’s arrest in the case, the police also added charges under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act to the existing FIR.

However, while his parents have claimed that he’s innocent, his lawyer has been calling his arrest ‘illegal’. While talking to the media, Elvish’s lawyer Prashant Rathi said, ” On Sunday, too, Yadav was called for questioning but was illegally detained by the police and wrongfully shown as arrested. Yadav was not even informed as to why or for what offence he was being arrested, which in itself is illegal.”

Elvish Yadav flaunting ‘swag’ in front of officials

In another statement issued on Tuesday, a Noida official revealed that Elvish was behaving as if he had nothing to fear from the authorities. A report in Indian Express quoted a police official as saying, “During questioning, Yadav did not accept the crime… but we have a lot of evidence. For him, it was to make a statement that he’s got ‘swag’ or ‘bhaukaal‘. He wanted to paint a picture among his fans as someone who is completely unafraid of law-enforcement agencies and can do whatever he wishes.”

The police have now intensified the investigation into the case after it was established that the Bigg Boss OTT 2 winner was linked to six parties where snake venom was supplied.