Jyoti Malhotra was arrested by Hisar (Haryana) police for allegedly spying and passing sensitive information to Pakistani intelligence operatives.
Jyoti Malhotra, a popular travel YouTuber from Hisar (Haryana), has been arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan. Jyoti Malhotra has now become a central figure in an ongoing investigation into an alleged Pakistan-linked espionage network operating across northern India. military center that has remained a target of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) from last Many years.
Travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra – earlier cases show a troubling pattern. In 2001, Pakistani national Asgar Ali was found to have infiltrated Hisar’s cantonment area using forged Indian documents, including a ration card and driver’s license. He was arrested in Bikaner, Rajasthan, while attempting to flee the country.
In 2003, Mohammad Haider, a resident of Valmiki Basti in Hisar, was detained in Ambala for allegedly transmitting sensitive information to Pakistan. Two years later, in 2005, Akhtar Ullah Munir ‘Sameer’ spent over a year living in Krishna Nagar, Hisar. He was accused of passing military intelligence from Punjab and Haryana to Pakistan. Further arrests in 2006 – of suspects Jyotiprasad and Babulal in Jalandhar – uncovered links back to Hisar. In the same month, Ludhiana police nabbed Vijay, a resident of Hisar’s Sabzi Mandi area, who had posed as a whitewasher while allegedly spying.
Intelligence agencies also confirmed that at least five other spies arrested across India were carrying forged documents originating from Hisar, highlighting its continued misuse as a hub for identity fabrication. Near the Jindal Bridge in April 2020, Hisar police detained a youth suspected of being a Pakistani national. Even though the Indian intelligence agencies were alerted, official details of the incident were never released.
Jyoti Malhotra was presented before a court and remanded to five days’ police custody. The probe continues amid growing concern about cross-border intelligence activities disguised as cultural or travel exchanges.