Espionage racket busted: YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra among six Indians arrested for spying for Pakistan
New Delhi: Indian authorities have arrested six individuals for allegedly spying for Pakistan, including Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra. Malhotra, who operated the travel-themed YouTube channel "Travel with Jo", is accused of maintaining contact with Pakistani intelligence operatives and sharing sensitive information.
According to a report by India Today, Malhotra had visited Pakistan in 2023 after obtaining a visa through commission agents. During her visit, she reportedly developed a close relationship with Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, a former staff member at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. Danish was declared persona non grata and expelled from India on May 13, 2025, following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Investigators claim Danish introduced Malhotra to multiple Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs), including an individual identified as Shakir alias Rana Shahbaz. Malhotra allegedly stayed in contact with these operatives through platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat. She is also reported to have saved one contact under the alias “Jatt Randhawa.”
Authorities allege that Malhotra shared sensitive information about key Indian locations with PIOs. She is also suspected of having had an intimate relationship with one of the operatives and travelling with him to Bali, Indonesia. Her YouTube videos have been noted for presenting Pakistan in a favorable light, and she was reportedly in frequent communication with Danish during his tenure in India.
In addition to Malhotra, the arrested individuals include a 32-year-old widow named Guzala from Malerkotla, Punjab. Guzala is said to have visited the Pakistan High Commission in February 2025 to apply for a visa and remained in close contact with Danish, who allegedly promised to marry her and sent her money on multiple occasions. Visas were also arranged for Guzala and her friend Banu Nasreen, another widow from Malerkotla.
A third suspect from Malerkotla and a 25-year-old student from Haryana were also arrested. The student reportedly established contact with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during a religious pilgrimage and is accused of sharing sensitive military details. Another individual named Arman, a resident of Nuh district in Haryana, was arrested for allegedly supplying Indian SIM cards and transferring funds to Pakistan-based handlers.
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7 held for running fake call centre in South Kolkata
Kolkata (PTI): Seven people were arrested from the Parnashree area in the southern part of the city for allegedly running a fake call centre, a police officer said on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on Netaji Subhas Road on Friday night and found the fake call centre operating from the ground floor, he said.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused had set up a bogus company using forged documents and posed as employees of an antivirus firm to call citizens in the US, the officer said.
"The callers would gain the trust of victims and then use remote access to take control of their phones or other digital devices. The accused allegedly siphoned off large sums of money, running into millions of dollars, from victims' accounts," he said.
Five laptops, two WiFi routers, six mobile phones and four headsets were seized from the accused, he said, adding that the seven are being questioned to ascertain the full extent of the racket and to identify others involved.
