Noida police quizzes Elvish Yadav for two hours in snake venom case

However, Noida police were not able to confront Yadav with the arrested accused as they are yet to get them on police remand from the court

YouTuber Elvish Yadav was quizzed by Noida police for around two hours at the Sector 20 police station on early Wednesday in connection with the supply of snake venom at a party in Noida, allegedly for recreational use, senior officers said, adding that Yadav appeared before them along with a team of lawyers and cooperated with the investigation. Yadav was also asked to join the probe again.

On November 3, six people, including YouTuber Elvish Yadav, were booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and Section 120A (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly providing snake venom for a party in Noida’s Sector 51. (ANI)

However, Noida police were not able to confront Yadav with the arrested accused as they are yet to get them on police remand from the court.

On November 3, six people, including YouTuber Elvish Yadav, were booked under the Wildlife (Protection) Act and Section 120A (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly providing snake venom for a party in Noida’s Sector 51 after an animal welfare activist associated with NGO People For Animals (PFA) approached Sector 49 police station.

The five arrested were identified as Rahul Chauhan (32), Teetunath (45) and Narayan (50), both sons of Harinath, and Ravinath (45) son of Chandinath, all residents of Moharband village in south-east Delhi’s Badarpur.

Police said nine snakes -- five cobras, one python, two sand snakes and one rat snake -- protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,-- and a small 20ml tube of suspected snake venom were recovered from the five men.

Doctor Nikhil Varshney of the veterinary department said, “Medical examination of the snakes revealed that the venom glands of nine snakes and the fangs of eight snakes were missing. We have submitted the report for further legal proceedings, and the snakes were returned to the forest department.”

Police said a notice under Section 41 (to appear before a police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has been sent to Yadav on Tuesday.

Gautam Budh Nagar, additional commissioner of police, Sureshrao A Kulkarni said, “Elvish Yadav joined the probe along with a team of lawyers on Wednesday around 12.30am and his statements were recorded based on the questionnaire prepared by a team of police.”

“His statements will be cross verified with that of the other accused and examined. He was also questioned about one of his viral videos, in which he could be seen playing with snakes, and he told us that the video was recorded elsewhere,” said Kulkarni.

“Yadav was questioned for around two hours and asked to join the probe again,” he said.

The additional CP further said, “The second round of questioning would depend on the remand of the other five arrested accused. After getting them on police remand, we will confront the arrested accused with Yadav for further investigation in the case.”

When questioned about why the ongoing investigation was transferred to Sector 20 from Sector 49, Kulkarni said, “There was a communication gab with the media. Initially, the case was investigated by the sub-inspector rank of the officer, but now as the case has been transferred to Sector 20 police station, it is being investigated by an inspector rank officer and more senior officers are on the investigation team to ensure that there are no loopholes in the probe.”

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Pramod Kumar Shrivastava said “After getting an order from the court, we released the snakes in Surajpur wetland.The medical report said the snakes were fit to be released in the forest.”