New Delhi, 16 Oct

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet against YouTuber Siddharth Yadav alias Elvish Yadav, his friend and singer Rahul Yadav alias Fazilpuriya, apart from two others, and charged them with money laundering in an alleged wildlife crime involving protected snakes and lizards, official sources said.

The prosecution complaint was filed on 13 October before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Gurugram, Haryana.

The court is yet to take cognisance of the chargesheet.

Yadav, 28, Fazilpuriya, 35, a company named Sky Digital India Pvt. Ltd. and its director Gurkaran Singh Dhaliwal have been named as the accused in the chargesheet, the sources told PTI.

Yadav has been accused of generating, acquiring, and possessing proceeds of crime worth Rs 84,000 from the monetisation of an "offending" video uploaded in 2023 that depicted live snakes and an iguana (a protected species of lizard).

Fazilpuriya has been charged for the same offence, as it was found during the investigation that he was the creator and owner of a music video named '32 BORE' in which protected wildlife species (snakes and an iguana) were used in contravention of Section 51 of the Wildlife Protection Act.

The agency has alleged that Elvish Yadav and Fazilpuriya "illegally used protected species of snakes, exotic animals, such as iguanas, in the production of commercial music videos and vlogs for the purpose of increasing followers and generating money."

"These music videos were given to Sky Digital India Pvt. Ltd., and then the videos were uploaded to YouTube for generating revenue," it said.

Both Elvish and Fazilpuriya have been questioned by the federal agency at its zonal Lucknow office. The central agency had registered a case in May and pressed charges under the PMLA after taking cognisance of two police FIRs and a chargesheet filed against Elvish and linked persons by the Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) district police in Uttar Pradesh, and the other by the Gurugram Police. Elvish was attested by the Noida Police earlier.

The controversial YouTuber, also the winner of reality show Bigg Boss OTT 2, was booked under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Wildlife Protection Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by the police.