A travel vlogger from Haryana, recently arrested under the Official Secrets Act, is under the scanner of national agencies after her personal diary revealed glowing remarks about Pakistan, a country she allegedly visited as part of a suspected espionage operation.
Jyoti Malhotra, who runs the YouTube channel ‘Travel with Jo’, was taken into custody from her Hisar home last week. With a subscriber base of nearly 3.8 lakh, her videos often chronicled her trips abroad, including to Pakistan, where she is believed to have spent 10 days. Her arrest has triggered a multi-agency investigation.
The Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency are jointly probing her alleged connections with Pakistani intelligence operatives. Authorities suspect she was in regular contact with several individuals attached to Pakistan’s diplomatic and intelligence circles, including staffers from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Diary details experience in Pakistan
Sources privy to the investigation said a diary recovered from Malhotra’s possession has provided critical insights. In one entry, she wrote: “Today, I have returned to my country, India, after a 10-day trip from Pakistan. 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.”
She went on to describe the country as “crazy” and “colourful”, adding, “It was so emotional that words fall short.”
In another passage, she appeared to make an appeal to Pakistani authorities, writing: “Protect the temples there and let Indians meet their families from whom they were separated in 1947.”
These sentiments, though seemingly benign, are now being examined in the broader context of national security, especially as they coincide with reports of her alleged interactions with individuals from Pakistan’s intelligence network.
Spy ring spread across northern India
Investigators believe Malhotra may have been part of a wider espionage network operating in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. At least eleven persons have reportedly been detained in the last fortnight in connection with the same investigation. Another vlogger from Punjab, identified only as Guzala, has also been arrested.
Malhotra allegedly maintained contact with an individual known as Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, said to be associated with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. He was recently expelled from the country after being declared persona non grata.
Also read: ‘Was not aware she went to Pakistan,’ says Jyoti’s father
Danish is believed to have introduced her to other Pakistani nationals who, officials say, were intelligence operatives. She reportedly saved one such operative’s contact number under a false name—‘Jatt Randhawa’—to avoid suspicion.
Authorities claim she continued to communicate with her handlers even after returning to India through encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Snapchat. Her meetings with some of them in Delhi are also under the scanner.
Funding and foreign travel under lens
Hisar Superintendent of Police Shashank Kumar Sawan said Malhotra’s foreign travel appeared inconsistent with her known income sources.
“Her known income sources do not justify her foreign travel. We suspect external funding. On the surface, she was just a travel blogger,” said Mr Sawan.
As part of the investigation, her bank transactions, mobile phones, and electronic devices are being forensically analysed. Officials are attempting to trace the flow of funds and the motives behind the international trips, which, they suspect, had objectives beyond content creation.
The authorities are also trying to determine whether sensitive information was passed on during her meetings abroad.
The case continues to evolve, with further arrests expected as agencies unravel what they describe as a “carefully layered network” with transnational links.
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