Spying for Pakistan; leaking sensitive information; eight people including YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra arrested

NEW DELHI: Eight people, including a YouTuber, have been arrested in a case of espionage for Pakistan. Jyoti Malhotra, a prominent travel vlogger and a native of Hisar, Haryana, was arrested in an investigation conducted in Haryana and Punjab. It was found that they had leaked sensitive information to Pakistan's intelligence agency. The arrested people have been remanded for five days.

Intelligence agencies had intensified surveillance to detect espionage in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. Those who had passed crucial information to Pakistan were caught following this. The arrested Jyoti Malhotra is a vlogger with more than three and a half lakh followers. She visited Pakistan in 2023. The woman was helped by Danish, an official at the Pakistan High Commission. The agencies also say that she provided information about various areas of India to ISI officials. Sharing a video praising Pakistan also led to her arrest.

The police had arrested Devender Singh Dhillon, a native of Kaithal, who took pictures of strategic locations including Patiala Cantonment and handed them over to Pakistani officials. A native of UP who spied in Panipat last week was also arrested. On the 3rd of this month, two youths who took pictures of air bases and military installations and handed them over to the ISI were arrested in Amritsar, Punjab. On the 11th, the police arrested two people, including a woman from Malerkotla, Punjab, who was in contact with an official of the Pakistan High Commission. All their phones have been sent for forensic examination. Their financial transactions are also being examined.