Supreme Court stays proceedings against Elvish Yadav in snake venom case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an interim stay on legal proceedings against YouTuber Elvish Yadav in connection with a rave party case, where snake venom and other illegal drugs were allegedly supplied and consumed.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the respondents, including the Uttar Pradesh government and complainant Gaurav Gupta, seeking their response to Yadav’s plea.

Yadav had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the chargesheet filed against him and the summons issued in the case. Earlier in May, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed his plea, observing that the allegations warranted a thorough legal examination as multiple FIRs had been registered in the matter.

On Wednesday, the counsel appearing for Yadav informed the top court that his client has challenged the Allahabad High Court’s decision denying him relief. The top court ordered an interim stay of legal proceedings against Yadav and issued a notice to the respondents in the matter.

Elvish Yadav has been chargesheeted under Sections 9, 39, 48A, 49, 50 and 51 of Wildlife Protection Act and Sections 284, 289 and 120B of IPC and Sections 8, 22, 29, 30 and 32 of NDPS Act in the FIR lodged at Police Station Sector-49, Noida, District Gautam Buddh Nagar. A summons order has also been issued by the First Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gautam Buddh Nagar.

Yadav challenged the chargesheet and the proceedings on the ground that the informant was not a competent person to lodge an FIR under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It is pleaded that no snake, narcotic or psychotropic substance has been recovered from the applicant.

Further, it was pleaded that, “It is a well-known fact that the applicant is an influential person and appears on several reality shows on television, and inevitably, the involvement of the applicant in the instant FIR attracted great attention from the media. Consequently, influenced by the aforesaid attention, the police officers attempted to make the case more sensitive by invoking Sections 27 and 27A of the NDPS Act immediately after arresting the applicant”. (ANI)