Noida, Mar 17: Controversial Youtuber Elvish Yadav was arrested on Sunday by Noida police in connection with a probe into the suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug at a party here four months ago, officials said.
Yadav, a winner of reality show Bigg Boss OTT, was later produced in a special court in Surajpur which sent the 26-year-old social media influencer to 14-day judicial custody, they said.
He was among six people named in an FIR lodged at Noida's Sector 49 police station on November 3 last year. The five other accused, identified as snake charmers, were arrested in November but are currently out on bail, the officials said.
The case was lodged under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, Indian Penal Code sections 120B (party to criminal conspiracy), 284 (negligent conduct related to poison that endangers human safety) and 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals), according to police.
Charges under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have also been added in the case in which Yadav, a resident of Haryana's Gurugram, has been arrested, police said.
"Elvish Yadav was called for questioning in the case. He was arrested after adequate evidence, including those linked to the NDPS Act, was found in the case. Further investigation is underway," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Vidya Sagar Mishra said.
The Noida police said during investigation in the case, it had collected some samples which have been confirmed by forensic laboratory as "snake venom".
"The accused has been arrested by a team of Sector 20 police station which was investigating the case," Additional DCP (Noida) Manish Mishra told PTI.
During probe, the case was transferred from Sector 49 police station to Sector 20 police station, he added.
On Sunday afternoon, Yadav was produced in the Sunday special court of the Remand Magistrate who sent him to jail for 14 days, according to police.
The Youtuber was then lodged in the Luksar jail in Greater Noida, police added.
Yadav has refuted the charges of involvement in the case and has been questioned by police in the past.
A sub-inspector, who was also the in-charge of Sector 49 police station where the FIR was registered, was shunted within days of the case being registered on the complaint of an official of animal rights group People For Animals (PFA).
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 on November 3 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 party hall and they were probing his role in the whole case of snake venom use as a recreational drug.
PFA chairperson and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi accused Yadav of involvement in illegally selling snake venom and sought his immediate arrest.
On November 4, Yadav was briefly stopped for questioning by police in Rajasthan's Kota while he was travelling with his friends in a car but was let off soon.
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London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.
Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.
Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".
"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.
"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.
A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.
"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.
The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.
“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.
“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.
A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.
Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.
The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.
His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.
“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.
Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.
“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.
Another violent anti-Indian attack in Ireland
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) August 5, 2025
Taxi driver Lakhvir Singh was attacked with glass bottles while doing his job pic.twitter.com/mtkwhLWISx