A Gautam Buddh Nagar court granted bail to controversial YouTuber Siddharth Yadav alias Elvish Yadav in a drugs case on March 22, six days after he was lodged in a jail in Noida, his lawyers said.
The jail authorities said they have received Mr. Yadav's release order but he would be handed over on March 23 to the custody of a court in Haryana's Gurugram, where he is to be produced in an assault case involving content creator Sagar Thakur alias Maxtern.
The hearing in the Gurguram court is scheduled for March 27.
Mr. Yadav was arrested on March 17 by the Noida Police in connection with its probe into the suspected use of snake venom as a recreational drug in parties he hosted. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jaihind Kumar Singh also granted bail to two of the YouTuber's associates — Ishwar and Vinay Yadav — who were arrested on Thursday, advocate Prashant Rathi said.
"The court has granted bail to Yadav, who will have to furnish two bail bonds of ₹50,000 each," the lawyer who represented the YouTuber in the court along with advocate Deepak Bhati, said.
The controversial 26-year-old YouTuber, also the winner of the reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, has been booked under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Wildlife Protection Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC), police said.
Luksar Jail Superintendent Arun Pratap Singh said the court's release order for Yadav has been received by the prison authorities.
"We have also received a production warrant for Elvish Yadav in a Gurugram court. He will not be released from Luksar Jail but will be sent to the court. Whether to release him or keep him in jail will be decided by the Gurugram court," Mr. Singh told PTI. He said Mr. Yadav would be taken to Gurugram, his home city, by the Luksar Jail authorities on Saturday.
Mr. Yadav was among the six people named in an FIR lodged at Noida's Sector 49 police station on November 3 last year on a complaint from a representative of animal rights NGO People for Animals (PFA). The five other accused, all snake charmers, were arrested in November but are currently out on bail, officials said.
The case was lodged under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act and IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 284 (negligent conduct related to poison that endangers human safety) and 289 (negligent conduct with respect to animals).
Charges under the NDPS Act have also been added to the FIR, police said.
The five snake charmers were arrested from a banquet hall in Noida Sector 51 on November 3 last year and nine snakes, including five cobras, rescued from their possession, while 20 ml of suspected snake venom was also seized.
However, police had said Mr. Yadav was not present at the banquet hall and they were probing his role in the case that allegedly involved the use of snake venom as a recreational drug.
PFA chairperson and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Maneka Gandhi has accused Mr. Yadav of involvement in illegally selling snake venom.
On November 4 last year, he 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.
