Chandigarh: A court in Haryana, on Monday, extended the judicial custody of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested in May on suspicion of espionage, till September 3.
She appeared before the Judicial Magistrate Sunil Kumar in Hisar, who remanded her to judicial custody.
Malhotra, who was running a YouTube channel named ‘Travel with Jo’, has been booked under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on the statement of Sub-Inspector Bijender Singh in the Civil Lines police station in Hisar.
Last week, the Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has filed a nearly 2,500-page charge sheet against Jyoti Malhotra, who has been arrested on charges of espionage for Pakistan.
The charge sheet claimed that “solid evidence” had been gathered establishing her involvement in espionage activities.
She was arrested on suspicion of espionage on May 16 and was subsequently remanded to custody.
According to the charge sheet, Malhotra had been allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan’s ISI for a considerable period and maintained regular contact with them.
Investigators said that she initially started by creating blogs and content like a regular YouTuber, but during a visit to Pakistan, she allegedly came into contact with Intelligence handlers.
Police said that digital forensic examination of her mobile phone revealed extensive conversations with Ehsan-ur-Rahim Danish Ali, an officer at the Pakistani High Commission in India.
The charge sheet also named her links with ISI operatives — Shakir, Hasan Ali and Nasir Dhillon.
Responding to the charge sheet, her counsel Kumar Mukesh said they would respond legally after reviewing it.
According to the FIR, Malhotra had visited the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023, where she came into contact with Ehsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish, a staffer.
She has been accused of sharing sensitive information regarding Indian locations and was used to project Pakistan on social media in a positive light.
Danish, who has since been declared persona non grata by the Indian government and expelled on May 13, introduced her to multiple Intelligence operatives based in Pakistan.
Investigators say she also entered into an intimate relationship with an Intelligence operative and travelled to Bali in Indonesia with him.
(IANS)
