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Charges bogus, Elvish’s arrest wrongful, claims his lawyer
Elvish Yadav was arrested on Sunday for allegedly supplying snake venom to party revellers in Noida.
Punching holes in the case charged against YouTuber Elvish Yadav by the Noida police, the jailed suspect’s legal team on Tuesday said his arrest was done wrongfully, in violation of Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) and NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) Act.
On November 3 last year, Yadav and five others were booked under the WPA and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Sector 49 police station for allegedly supplying snake venom to party revellers in Noida, allegedly for recreational use.
On Sunday, 26-year-old Yadav, a resident of Wazirabad village in Gurugram, was arrested by the Noida police in connection with the case, and was later sent to 14-day judicial custody. Charges under the NDPS Act were added to the existing FIR by the police following a forensic report that 20ml liquid, recovered from the five arrested suspects, was venom from a krait.
Yadav’s lawyer Prashant Rathi said on Tuesday that the Noida police had called Yadav for questioning under Section 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) (police officer’s power to require attendance of witnesses) to join investigation as a witness, but was later ”illegally detained” and then arrested.
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“Since the case was registered in November, Yadav has come for questioning five times, after being summoned under Section 160 of CrPC. 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,” said Rathi.
Rathi further said that the offence in question under which the FIR was registered pertains to WPA, and no such contraband (snake venom) was recovered from Yadav.
“Yadav was not even present at the said party, and no contraband under WPA was recovered from him, which is common knowledge. Moreover, as per Section 55 of the WPA, only a government officer is authorised to take cognizance of an offence under this Act and file a complaint. Whereas, in this case, a member of an NGO has filed a complaint, which is a violation of WPA,” said Rathi.
Also Read | Elvish Yadav case: What is snake venom and its lethal side as recreational drug?
He further added that charges under NDPS also do not stand against Yadav.
“First, no contraband prohibited under NDPS has been recovered from Yadav. Secondly, the snake venom in question is not even mentioned in the list of psychotropic substances prohibited under the NDPS. Third, NDPS being a special act, and requires an investigator to file a separate FIR in the case, and the offences under this Act cannot be added to the existing FIR, which is a violation of NDPS,” said Rathi.
Responding to the allegations, Vidyasagar Mishra, deputy commissioner of police, Noida, said, “Noida police will respond to all these allegations before the honourable court, as the matter is sub judice. We are assured that all proceedings have been done lawfully and there have been no violations.”
