Hisar YouTuber held for sharing sensitive info with Pak agents

The police have arrested a Hisar-based YouTuber and travel vlogger, Jyoti Malhotra, for allegedly spying for Pakistan. Acting on intelligence inputs from central agencies and after an investigation by the CIA staff, the police took the YouTuber into custody from her residence in New Agarsain Extension here.

Being framed: Father

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Jyoti’s father Harish Malhotra claimed his daughter had official permission to visit Pakistan and that she was falsely implicated.

Hisar DSP Kamaljeet said Jyoti was produced in a local court on Saturday and had been remanded to police custody for five days. According to the FIR registered at Hisar Civil Lines Police Station, Jyoti, who runs a YouTube channel named “Travel with Jo”, allegedly established contacts with Pakistani nationals and intelligence operatives during her visits to Pakistan in 2023.

As per the FIR, Jyoti revealed that she first visited the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi to obtain a visa, where she met Ahsan-Ur-Rahim, alias Danish. She maintained regular contact with him and later travelled to Pakistan twice. During her trips, she met a person named Ali Ahwan, who arranged her stay and facilitated meetings with officers from Pakistan’s intelligence and security agencies.

The FIR further states that Jyoti also met two other persons, Shakir and Rana Shahbaz, and saved their contact details under fake names in her phone to conceal their identities. After returning to India, she allegedly continued communicating with them via WhatsApp, Snapchat and Telegram. She allegedly shared sensitive information with them that posed a threat to national security.

Notably, Ahsan-Ur-Rahim, with whom Jyoti remained in contact, was declared persona non grata by the Indian government on May 13, due to espionage-related activities. Her continued association with him after his blacklisting forms a key part of the case.

The police have booked Jyoti under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, along with Sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, which pertain to activities prejudicial to state security, communication with foreign agents and unauthorised handling of official secrets. Inspector Nirmala has been assigned the investigation into the FIR.