Himachal Pradesh (Him)-The Govt of Haryana has arrested YouTuber, travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra on charges of espionage and said she was working for a Pakistani intelligence agency. This led investigators to intensively examine her recent overseas movement, notably to Pakistan and China, for potential suspected connections to events of high sensitivity, including last week’s terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
Police have said that Jyoti Malhotra took multiple trips to Pakistan, which went viral after making travel vlogs. One of these trips was only a few days before the 22 April 2025 Pahalgam terror attacks that have since decimated over two dozen. It is alleged that she had visited Pakistan during these visits with both Pakistanis as well as its officials and intelligence operatives. Also, it has come to light that Malhotra went to China at least once through investigations. One of the focal points of the probe is her foreign travel logistics and sources for funding trips.
Police said Malhotra was being “built as an asset” by the Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs). She is said to have frequently met some of these individuals before whom one had been repeatedly listed as threatening for espionage purposes and even expelled from India. Even though police have not yet confirmed if sensitive information about the military or defense department was shared, they are examining her electronics for the print between phone logs and laptop messaging, as well as communications over encrypted apps. Police have so far not revealed why her visit to Pakistan came before the Pahalgam attack and are looking into any links.
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The arrest of Jyoti Malhotra is just a part of a massive assault against alleged espionage and shows much of the worries about foreign hostile agencies using social media Influencers for narrative warfare & intelligence gathering. Her father claimed that she had gone abroad with a license to create content and forbade him from contacting friends who crossed the border in a border state. However, other reports have also alleged that in 2024, she made an infamous trip to China where her behaviour went controversial online and thus was officially banned by Chinese authorities. This investigation is ongoing into what else she did and who she contacted.
