Haryana's Hisar District Court sent YouTuber and travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra to a four-day police remand on Thursday (May 22). The YouTuber was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) CID Crime Branch, Sarthak Sarangi, said that facts are being verified.
"We have just received information that YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra visited Puri's Jagannath temple and posted a video regarding it on Instagram. She also visited Chilika and Konark. She was in touch with a YouTuber from Odisha, Priyanka Senapati. We are verifying all the facts. We are in touch with our counterparts in Haryana regarding Jyoti Malhotra," the police official said.
SP Agrawal said, "Puri Police is investigating. We are in touch with Haryana and several state and central agencies."
According to Shashank Kumar Sawan, Superintendent of Police (SP) Hisar, Malhotra was being developed as an asset and had maintained ties with other YouTube influencers and Pakistani nationalsSawan stated, "She was in touch with other YouTube influencers, and they were also in contact with the Pakistan Information Officers (PIOs). She used to go to Pakistan, like on sponsored trips. She was in Pakistan before the Pahalgam attack, and the investigation is ongoing to establish any possible linkages."
Jyoti Malhotra was interrogated for allegedly passing information to Pakistan. She allegedly met a Pakistani officer, Ahsan-ur-Rahim, in Delhi, travelled to Pakistan twice, and shared sensitive information. During the preliminary investigation, the woman told the police that she went to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to apply for a visa and met a man named Ahsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish. Haris Malhotra, father of the woman arrested by Haryana Police on charges of spying, has said that his daughter made YouTube videos and had visited Pakistan. He demanded the return of the phones taken by the police.