Travel YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra Arrested For Spying For Pakistan

She was a YouTuber by day and a spy, well, also by day, presumably. 

Jyoti Malhotra aka Jyoti Rani, who ran a travel account on YouTube called 'Travel With Jo', has been arrested from Hisar in Haryana for sharing Indian military information with Pakistan, police said on Saturday.  She is among six people, including a 25-year-old student and 24-year-old security guard, from Punjab and Haryana who have been arrested on these charges.

Officials said the 33-year-old, who describes herself in her YouTube as a 'nomadic Leo girl wanderer', 'Haryanvi+Punjabi' and 'purane khyalo ki modern ladki' (a modern girl with a traditional outlook),  had come in contact with an official, Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, in the Pakistan High Commission and had gone to the neighbouring country at least twice. 

After last week's hostilities following the Pahalgam terror attack and India's response, dubbed 'Operation Sindoor', Rahim had reportedly been declared persona non grata and asked to leave India within 24 hours for committing espionage and leaking sensitive information regarding the movements of the Indian Army. 

During her interrogation, Malhotra told the police that she had gone to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to get a visa to visit the country when she met Rahim and began talking to him. She said she travelled to Pakistan twice after that and met Rahim's acquaintance Ali Ahwan, who arranged for her stay and travel in the country. 

Confession

"In Pakistan, Ali Ahwan arranged a meeting with Pakistani security and intelligence officials and I met Shakir and Rana Shahbaz. I took Shakir's mobile number and saved it in my phone under the name of 'Jat Randhawa' to avoid suspicion. Then I came back to India and remained in constant touch with all the above people through platforms like WhatsApp, Snapchat and Telegram and started sharing anti-national information. I also met Rahim several times," Officials quoted Malhotra as having told the police.

They said Malhotra, who is a resident of Hisar, has been charged for endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India by carrying out suspicious activities and sharing Indian intelligence information with a citizen of Pakistan who has been declared persona non grata by the Government of India on charges of espionage. 

Malhotra has been sent to police custody for five days.

'Memorable Moment'

In an upbeat YouTube shorts posted in March, Malhotra detailed her journey to Pakistan, stating she had gone to explore Hindu pilgrimage sites. 

"First, we clear Indian immigration, then we cross the Attari-Wagah border. When you cross the border, you feel very enthusiastic. It's a memorable moment, you get goosebumps. When you cross into Pakistan, there is media coverage of travellers," she says in Hindi.

"Then you exchange Indian rupees for Pakistani currency. I got 2.6 Pakistani rupees for each Indian rupee. I suffered a loss, I had thought it would be three," she adds.     

Other videos posted this year show her exploring the streets of Lahore, doing a "Ramzan food tour" and visiting temples.

Other Arrests

A security guard, Nauman Ilahi, was arrested in Haryana's Panipat on Wednesday on charges of spying for Pakistan. The 24-year-old used to get money deposited in the account of his brother-in-law in exchange for information. 

Devendra Singh Dhillon, a 25-year-old student, was arrested from Kaithal on May 12 for uploading photos of guns on social media. On Saturday, the Haryana Police said he admitted during questioning that he went to Pakistan through the Kartarpur corridor in November last year and was sharing sensitive information with officers of the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence).

Kaithal Superintendent of Police Aastha Modi said the first-year Master's student of political science at Patiala's Khalsa College had also shared images of the Patiala military cantonment with Pakistanis officers.

The Punjab police had also arrested two people on similar charges last week.