Court sends YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra to judicial custody in espionage case
Hisar, May 26 (PTI): A court here on Monday remanded YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra to judicial custody after the end of her police remand in a case of alleged espionage.
The 33-year-old travel influencer was produced in the court. A police spokesperson said that they did not seek her further remand after which the court sent her to jail.
Meanwhile, data from Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop, which had been sent for forensic examination, has been recovered, police sources said on Monday.
"Nearly 10-12 terabytes of data has been recovered. Further investigation in this regard is under progress," they said.
After her arrest, the police had sent Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop for forensic examination. Malhotra's four bank accounts are also being examined.
The court had extended Malhotra's police remand by four days when the YouTuber -- arrested on suspicion of espionage -- was last week produced before the court at the end of her five-day police remand.
Malhotra was among the 12 people arrested from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the past three weeks on suspicion of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India.
The Hisar native ran a YouTube channel -- "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension recently and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Hisar police had said that no evidence had emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military or defence related information.
But she was definitely in contact with some people, knowing that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives, they had said.
Police sources had said she was in touch with Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, a staffer at the Pakistani High Commission, since November 2023. India expelled Danish on May 13 for allegedly indulging in espionage.
The National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, and military intelligence officials have also questioned Malhotra.
Investigations have revealed that she visited Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, and some other countries.
She was also allegedly in touch with Danish during the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan that followed the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, they had said.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
