New Delhi: There is ‘solid evidence’ that YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was involved in espionage, a nearly 2,500-page chargesheet filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Hisar Police has revealed.
The chargesheet has been filed in a local court in Hisar, Haryana, from where Jyoti was arrested on May 16, days after Operation Sindoor. She is now in judicial custody.
The police, in its chargesheet, have claimed that Jyoti was passing sensitive information to Pakistani agents for a considerable period of time and maintained regular contact with them. The investigators said she initially started out by creating blogs and content like a regular YouTuber.
However, things changed after her visit to Pakistan, where she allegedly came into contact with intelligence handlers. The Hisar Police had earlier said that Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) were developing Malhotra as an asset.
It has been stated in the document 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 chargesheet also named her links with ISI operatives identified as Shakir, Hasan Ali and Nasir Dhillon.
Danish was a staffer at the Pakistani High Commission from November 2023 and had facilitated her visit to Pakistan. He is also known to have been in touch with other social media influencers in India, some of whom are now in custody. Danish was finally expelled from India on May 13 on charges of espionage.
Jyoti, who allegedly travelled to several countries with Danish, and was actually accorded a security detail of six machine-gun-toting bodyguards during her visit to Pakistan, was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Officials said that efforts are underway to find out exactly how much Jyoti knew and what she actually passed on to her handlers. As a popular YouTuber, she may have had access to certain defence installations, it is suspected.
