YouTuber Elvish Yadav appears before ED in money laundering case

Lucknow: YouTuber Siddharth Yadav alias Elvish Yadav appeared before the Enforcement Directorate here on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering case linked to suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug in parties he hosted and related financial transactions, official sources said.

The agency will record his statement at its zonal office located at Ashok Marg here.

The central agency had registered a case in May and pressed charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of an FIR and charge sheet filed against him and linked persons by the Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) district police in Uttar Pradesh.

Elvish Yadav was summoned by the agency in the second week of July but he sought deferment of the summons owing to his scheduled foreign travel and professional commitment.

Rahul Yadav alias Rahul Fazilpuriya, a singer from Haryana allegedly linked to Elvish Yadav, was questioned by the ED in the said case, they said.

Alleged generation of proceeds of crime and use of illicit funds for organising rave or recreational parties is under the scanner of the ED.

Elvish Yadav was arrested on March 17 by 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 controversial 26-year-old YouTuber, also the winner of reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, 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.

However, police had said Yadav was not present at the banquet hall and they were probing his role in the case that allegedly involved the use of snake venom as a recreational drug.

In April, Noida Police filed an over 1,200-page charge sheet in the case.

The charges included are snake trafficking, use of psychotropic substances and organising rave parties, the police had said.