Prime suspect taken on police remand again in snake venom case

Based on the new evidence, the police have now taken prime suspect Chauhan on remand, in order to dig into the details in a diary recovered from his house earlier, which logs details about parties to which they had allegedly supplied snake venom

The local court in Gautam Budh Nagar on Thursday granted Noida police one-day remand of the prime suspect in the snake venom case in which six people, including YouTuber Elvish Yadav, were booked on November 2 and five arrested, said police.

The five people arrested for allegedly providing snake venom to parties for use as a recreational drug on November 2. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The six people have been 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. While five of those named in the FIR were arrested, Yadav was questioned in the matter last Wednesday and allowed to go, said senior officers.

Some crucial evidence was recovered by investigators during interrogation of the five arrested suspects, 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.

Based on the new evidence, the police have now taken prime suspect Chauhan on remand, in order to dig into the details in a diary recovered from his house earlier, which logs details about parties to which they had allegedly supplied snake venom, allegedly for recreational use, an officer part of the investigation said.

“Chauhan has been taken into police custody till Friday noon. He will be questioned further on the involvement of Elvish Yadav who is also booked in the case. After the last round of questioning, we have procured some technical evidence and the prime suspect will be confronted with this,” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.

In the complaint, PFA officer-bearers said they posed as organisers of a rave party and asked the YouTuber to supply snake poison at a banquet hall in Sector 51, Noida. Yadav, they alleged, directed them to Rahul, who met the PFA team outside the banquet hall along with four snake charmers. The five were nabbed and a vial with 20ml liquid — believed to be venom — and nine snakes, including five cobras and a python — were recovered from them.