Allahabad High Court dismssed YOU tubber Elvish Yadav’s petition against the cgarge sheet Filed in the FIR against him
By Rajesh Pandey
The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed YouTuber Elvish Yadav’s petition against the chargesheet filed in the FIR against him for alleged misuse of snakes and snake venoms for making YouTube videos.
The allegations against him also include organising rave parties and calling foreigners who make people consume snake venom and other intoxicating drugs.
Justice Saurabh Srivastava dismissed his petition after orally observing that there are statements in the chargesheet and the FIR against Yadav and that the veracity of such allegations will be tested during the trial.
The court also noted that Yadav had not challenged the FIR in the petition.
While appearing for Yadav, senior advocate Navin Sinha 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, the 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.
After hearing both sides, the court dismissed the petition, effectively leaving it for the trial court to look into the allegations.
At present, a charge sheet has been filed in the FIR lodged against Elvish Yadav under various sections of Wildlife Protection Act and IPC and NDPS Act under police station – sector-49 Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar district. Subsequently, summoning order was issued by the (first) additional chief judicial magistrate, Gautam Buddha Nagar.
In the present petition, Alvish Yadav challenged the chargesheet and proceedings on the grounds the informant was not a competent person to lodge FIR under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
It was also pleaded that no snakes, narcotics, or psychotropic substances were recovered from the applicant. Lastly, it was pleaded that no causal link has been established between the applicant and the other co-accused.
Elvish Yadav further pleaded that though the informant is no longer an animal welfare officer, he has filed the FIR showing himself to be one.
In addition to it, it was also 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 first information report (FIR) 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 later on.
