Elvish Yadav, the winner of the Bigg Boss OTT reality show and a popular YouTuber was booked by the local police for hosting rave parties in Noida on Friday. Snake venom, a popular party drug as the alternative to morphine and cocaine was found. Five people were arrested for allegedly supplying snakebites, at rave parties, a drug made from snake venom.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar police said the arrest was made from Chevron banquet hall in Noida’s Sector 51 following a tip-off from an organisation that works for animal rights, People for Animals (PFA), and is run by Maneka Gandhi, Sultanpur Lok Sabha BJP MP.

rave parties

The five people who are accused and arrested Rahul, Jaikaran, Teetunath, Narayan, and Ravinath are residents of Molarband village in Badarpur in Delhi. When the police arrived and searched they found five cobras, 20 ml of snake venom, 2 two-headed snakes, a python, and a rat snake recovered from the accused.

Snake bites and snake venoms are increasingly being used by drug addicts at rave parties. The venom from snakes acts as a stimulant similar to drugs like cocaine and morphine. A study by the ‘National Institutes Of Health’ on ‘Snake Venom Use As A Substitute For Opioids’ concluded that derivatives from reptiles such as snakes, scorpions, and lizards are used by drug addicts as a substitute get high.

As per the study by the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, Spanish flies, Spiny-tailed lizards’ burnt lizard carcasses, cantharides and toxic honey, are also used for doping purposes at rave parties.

“Snakes are held near the head end of the snake, just distal to the lip margin, by the person in charge of snakes. A sharp slap on the snake’s head with a blunt item causes it to bite. It is made sure that a minimal amount of venom is injected in the little toe or index finger for minimal envenomation followed by getting a snakebite in the individual’s lip, tongue or ear lobes,” according to the research paper.

The snakes chosen are from slum snake charmers or nomadic tribesmen, for example: Naja naja (cobra), Bungarus caeruleus (common krait), and Opheodrys vernalis (green snake), green vine and rat snake. When venom mixes with human blood, it releases serotonin, peptides, bradykinin, and prostaglandins having a sedative psychotropic and hypnotic effect but there has been no explanation for the neurotoxic effect of snake venom on the human brain and body.

Addicts who turn to snake venom to get high have earlier tried various psychotropic substances, according to a study by the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. Adolescents mostly prefer venom from snake abuse to remain high at all times but the psychotropic effect after a snake bite differs from person to person.

Symptoms after a snake bite include blurred vision, giddiness, lethargy, drowsiness, intense persistent euphoria, dizziness, and intense state of arousal.

A large number of snakes especially cobras are reportedly killed for their venom which is smuggled to Delhi and adjoining areas to be used in rave parties.

However, the Bigg Boss winner Elvish Yadav, in a post on Instagram, denied the accusations and claimed he was innocent. He called them baseless. “All these accusations against me are baseless. These are all fake. There is not even a single per cent of truth in it. I am willing to cooperate with the UP Police,” Elvish said.