Snake Venom Case: Allahabad High Court Dismisses YouTuber Elvish Yadav's Plea Against Chargesheet, Summons

The Allahabad High Court today dismissed YouTuber Elvish Yadav's plea against the chargesheet filed in the FIR against him for alleged misuse of snakes and snake venoms for making YouTube videos. Allegations against him also include organising rave parties and calling foreigners who make people consume snake venom and other intoxicating drugs.

A bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava dismissed his plea after orally observing that there are statements in the chargesheet and in the FIR against Yadav and that the veracity of such allegations will be tested during the trial. The single judge also noted that Yadav had not challenged the FIR in the petition.

Appearing for Yadav, Senior Counsel Navin Sinha along with Advocate Nipun Singh, assisted by Advocate Naman Agarwal, argued that the person who filed the FIR against Yadav was not competent to file the same under the Wildlife Act. He also contended that neither Yadav was present in the party nor anything was recovered from him.

On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal submitted that it has come during the investigation that Yadav had supplied the snakes to the people from whom recovery was made.

Unimpressed with the submissions of Yadav's counsel, the Court dismissed the plea, effectively leaving it for the trial court to look into the allegations.

For context, a charge sheet has been filed in FIR lodged against Elvish Yadav under Sections 9, 39, 48A, 49, 50 and 51 Wildlife Protection Act and Sections 284, 289 and 120B IPC and Sections 8, 22, 29, 30 and 32 NDPS Act, PS- Sector-49 Noida, District- Gautam Buddha Nagar.

Summoning order has also been issued by the (First) Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gautam Buddha Nagar.

He challenged the chargesheet and proceedings on the grounds the hat informant was not a competent person to lodge FIR under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It has been pleaded that no snakes, narcotic or psychotropic substances have been recovered from the applicant. Lastly, it has been pleaded that no causal link has been established between the applicant and other co-accused.

Yadav pleaded that though the informant is no longer an Animal Welfare Officer, he has filed the FIR showing himself to be one.

Further, it had been pleaded that, “it is a well-known fact that the Applicant is an influencer and appears in multiple reality shows on television and inevitably the applicant's involvement in the instant F.I.R. garnered much media attention. Consequently, influenced by the aforesaid attention, the police officials also attempted to further sensitize the matter by invoking Sections 27 and 27A NDPS Act immediately after arresting the Applicant. However, the police officials failed to substantiate the additional charges and thereby, the same were dropped…”