YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was arrested under espionage charges on May 16. She was booked under sections of the Official Secrets Act and Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
The central investigation agencies are probing Jyoti Malhotra’ financial transactions and travel history. (Instagram/@travelwithjo1)
YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was recently arrested under espionage charges for her alleged links with Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) and is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Her trips to Pakistan, including the one before the Pahalgam terror attack, and China, are all under the scanner.
While intelligence agencies are interrogating Malhotra, the recovery of her diary by the Haryana Police provides more insight into her visit to Pakistan.
Jyoti Malhotra’s diary entries
In an undated diary entry, she mentioned her return to “my country” India from a 10-day Pakistan trip, NDTV reported. “During this time, I received a lot of love from the people of Pakistan. Our subscribers and friends also came to meet us. The two days we got to visit Lahore were not enough,” it said.
She also described Pakistan as “crazy”, “colourful”, and said that her experience in the neighbor nation couldn’t be put into words.
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In one of her entries, the YouTuber also penned down a request she made to the Pakistani authorities. “Protect the temples there and let Indians meet their families from whom they were separated in 1947,” it was quoted by the NDTV report.
Yoti Malhotra’s arrest
The 33-year-old YouTuber with a channel called ‘Travel with Jo’ and more than 3.77 lakh subscribers was arrested from her residence in Hisar on May 16.
Jyoti Malhotra was booked under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The Haryana police and the probing agencies have also found that Malhotra was in regular touch with a Pakistani staffer from the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi, Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, from November 2023 to March 2025.
Hisar police spokesman Vikas Kumar said that Malhotra confessed of being in touch with Danish, HT reported. Danish was allegedly “developing her as an asset”.
Danish, now declared a persona non grata by India, introduced the YouTuber to Ali Ahwan, who then arranged for her accommodation and further meetings with Pakistani security officials Shakir and Rana Shahbaz.
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As per the FIR registered against her, she had saved Shakir’s contact as “Jatt Randhawa” to avoid any suspicion. Following her return to India, Malhotra reportedly kept communicating with the operatives via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat. She also met Danish several times at the Pakistani High Commission in the national capital.
The FIR states that Malhotra was part of a larger espionage network spread across Haryana and Punjab, and involved agents, informants, and financial handlers, HT’s report said.
The YouTuber also reportedly had multiple bank accounts with several transactions, all of which are now being analysed by the central probing agencies along with her travel history.
Hisar superintendent of police (SP) Shashank Kumar Sawan had said at a press conference earlier, “Her known income sources do not justify her foreign travel. We suspect external funding. On the surface, she was just a travel blogger.”
Along with Malhotra, 11 others were arrested by the Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh police over the last two weeks for their alleged role in Pakistani spy operations. Another YouTuber, Guzala, was held from Punjab.
The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times
