ED summons Elvish Yadav to Lucknow on 23 July

YouTuber Elvish Yadav has been asked to appear before the Lucknow unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 23 July for questioning in connection with the money laundering case related to the snake venom-rave party case, registered against him by Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) police, said senior ED officials.

Earlier, the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the snake venom incident, considering the significant amount of money involved in the racket in May this year.

Yadav was arrested on 17 March and sent to 14-day judicial custody. However, he was granted bail by a local court five days later.

A senior ED official confirmed that the agency's Lucknow unit summoned Elvish Yadav on 23 July after he expressed his inability to appear before the ED on 8 July, citing his foreign tour. The official said Yadav has been given relaxation and allowed to turn up later.

He added that Elvish Yadav's close associate and Haryana singer Rahul Yadav, popularly known as Fazilpuria, was questioned for multiple hours at the ED Lucknow office on Monday.

Fazilpuria was questioned about the use of a snake in one of his popular songs. Besides, Elvish Yadav's other aides, Ishwar Yadav and Vinay Yadav, were questioned in the matter in the past.

On 6 April, the Gautam Buddha Nagar police filed a 1,200-page chargesheet under the Wildlife Conservation Act against Yadav and seven others in connection with the case, nearly six months after the FIR was registered.

The charge sheet describes how snakes were smuggled and how their venom was used at the parties. While Yadav had refuted the charges against him, calling them "baseless and fake," police later dropped charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against him, stating that it was a "mistake" on their side.