YouTuber Elvish Yadav appears before ED in Lucknow, grilled for 7 hours in money laundering case

YouTuber Elvish Yadav appeared before the Lucknow-based unit of the Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday in connection with an alleged money laundering case linked to a snake venom-rave party incident.

The social media influencer was questioned for nearly seven hours by the ED officials about his alleged links with snake charmers who allegedly made him available the snake venom and also related financial transactions.

Yadav, the winner of Big Boss OTT-2, was summoned by the enforcement agency in the second week of July but he sought deferment of the summons owing to his scheduled foreign travel and professional commitment.

It is important to note that ED registered a case against Yadav under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in May this year after taking cognizance of an FIR and charge sheet filed against him in Noida, considering the significant amount of money involved in the racket.

Yadav was arrested on March 17 by the Noida Police in connection with its probe into suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug in parties that were allegedly hosted by him. The YouTuber was booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Wildlife Protection Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by Noida Police.

Yadav was among the six people named in an FIR lodged at Noida's Sector 49 police station on November 3 last year on a complaint from a representative of animal rights NGO People for Animals (PFA). The five other accused, all snake charmers, were arrested in November and they were later given bail by a local court.

The five snake charmers were arrested from a banquet hall in Noida on November 3 last year and nine snakes, including five cobras, rescued from their possession, while 20 ml of suspected snake venom was also seized.

On April 6, the Noida police filed a 1,200-page chargesheet under the Wildlife Conservation Act against Yadav and seven others in connection with the case, almost six months after the FIR was registered. The chargesheet describes how snakes were smuggled and how their venom was used at the parties.