Snake Venom Case: Allahabad HC dismisses Elvish Yadav’s plea against chargesheet
Justice Saurabh Srivastava declined to interfere with the ongoing proceedings, stating that the veracity of the allegations would be tested during the trial.
The Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed YouTuber Elvish Yadav’s petition challenging the chargesheet filed in a case related to the alleged use of snakes and snake venom for making YouTube videos, and for organising rave parties involving drugs and foreign nationals.
Justice Saurabh Srivastava declined to interfere with the ongoing proceedings, stating that the veracity of the allegations would be tested during the trial. The court noted that statements supporting the charges exist in both the FIR and the chargesheet. It was also observed that the FIR itself had not been challenged by Yadav in the petition.
Elvish Yadav is facing charges under various sections of the Wildlife Protection Act, the Indian Penal Code, and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The FIR was registered in March last year at Sector-49 police station in Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar district.
According to the prosecution, Yadav is accused of supplying snakes used in alleged rave parties, where snake venom and other intoxicating substances were reportedly distributed. Following an investigation, a chargesheet was filed, and the (first) additional chief judicial magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar issued a summoning order against him.
Senior advocate Navin Sinha, appearing for Yadav, argued that the person who filed the FIR was not competent to do so under the Wildlife Protection Act. He maintained that Yadav was neither present at the party in question nor was anything recovered from his possession.
The petition also claimed that the informant falsely represented himself as an animal welfare officer, despite no longer holding that position. Yadav’s legal team stated that there was no direct link between him and the other accused, nor any recovery of snakes or banned substances from him.
On the other hand, the additional advocate general Manish Goyal, representing the state, submitted that it had come during the investigation that Yadav had supplied the snakes to the people from whom recovery was made.
The petition noted that Yadav, a popular social media influencer who has appeared on television reality shows, attracted considerable media attention following the FIR. It also alleged that police officials acted under pressure from the publicity, invoking stringent sections of the NDPS Act—Sections 27 and 27A—after his arrest. These particular sections were later dropped when supporting evidence was not found.
