Snake venom case: Complainants allege Elvish Yadav gave ‘life threats’

Two animal rights activists, complainants in the snake venom case involving YouTuber Elvish Yadav, moved Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking police protection after he allegedly gave them ‘life threats.’
In their plea, brothers Saurabh and Gaurav Gupta, claimed they got ‘threat calls,’ and pressurised to withdraw their complaint. The Guptas, residents of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, also mentioned in their plea that they are members of Union minister Maneka Gandhi’s People for Animals (PFA) organisation.
“We recorded Yadav’s video and got an FIR filed against him for using snake venom as drug in rave parties,” they stated, referring to the case from November last year.
Taking up the matter, the bench of Justice Jasjit Singh Bedi issued a notice to the Haryana government, and fixed April 18 as the next date of hearing.
Yadav, who courted a fresh controversy recently after picking up a ‘fight’ with fellow YouTuber Sagar Thakur, better known as ‘Maxtern,’ was arrested on March 17 in the snake venom case. He has been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPC) Act, and Sections 284 (negligent conduct related to poison that endangers safety) and 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The said rave party was held at Noida’s sector 51. Police had recovered nine snakes – five cobras, one python, two sand snakes and one rat snake – protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, and a small 20 ml tube of suspected snake venom, from six accused, including the Bigg Boss OTT Season 2 winner.
Separately, a medical report from the veterinary department had revealed that the venom glands of all nine snakes were missing and so were the fangs of eight snakes.