Enforcement Directorate on Thursday took action against YouTuber Elvish Yadav and singer Rahul Yadav also known as Fazilpuria. The ED has seized properties of Elvish Yadav and Fazilpuria in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana along with some of their bank accounts.
According to sources, the attached properties are worth several crores. The ED had recently recorded Yadav and Fazilpuria’s statements and had also interrogated them extensively.
Bigg Boss OTT winner Elvish Yadav was arrested by Noida Police in a case related to the illegal supplying snake venom, following which a money laundering case was also registered against him. An FIR was also registered him for thrashing another YouTuber Sagar Thakur alias Maxtern.
In September this year, Elvish Yadav was summoned by the ED in UP’s Lucknow headquarters for questioning. He was reportedly grilled for seven hours for the PMLA case related to the snake venom case filed against him.
In November 2023, the famous YouTuber along with five others were booked under the the Wildlife (Protection) Act and Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sector 49 police station for allegedly supplying snake venom to party revellers, allegedly for recreational use.
Thereafter, Elvish Yadav was arrested on March 17 by the Noida Police in connection with the case. He was later sent to a 14-day judicial custody. In April, 1200-page chargesheet was filed, oulining the charges of snake smuggling and drug possession.
The matter was brought to light after a People For Animals NGO welfare officer filed an FIR regarding this. He had accused Elvish of using multiple live snakes in a video shoot last year at Earth Iconic mall in Gurgaon sector 71.
Singer Rahul Fazilpuria was also questioned in the same snake case by the ED. He was also found to have used snakes in one of his songs. They were booked under sections of Cruelty to Wildlife Act and IPC Section 294 (obscenity in public place).
The prosecution told the court that 20 ml snake venom and nine live snakes including five cobras, one python, one rat snake, were recovered by the police and argued that they were enough to prove Elvish’s involvement in this case.
