Jyoti Malhotra case not the first: In 2010, diplomat Madhuri Gupta was caught sharing secrets with Pakistan after a honeytrap
The recent arrest of Jyoti Malhotra, known for her popular YouTube travel channel 'Travel with Jo', has shocked many. She is accused of sharing sensitive military information with Pakistan. This case reminds people of a similar incident from 2010 involving Madhuri Gupta, a former Indian diplomat.
Unlike Malhotra, Gupta was not a social media personality but a senior official at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. She was reportedly trapped in a love affair with a Pakistani intelligence officer named Jamshed. He pretended to love her and gained her trust to get secret information.
In 2010, Delhi Police arrested Gupta under the Official Secrets Act. Investigations showed she had shared important defence-related information with Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI. Two Pakistani agents, Jamshed and Mudassar Raza Rana, were in touch with her. They first contacted her through a woman journalist and even helped her get a book written by terrorist leader Maulana Masood Azhar. This is how their relationship began.
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At the time, Gupta was 52 and Jamshed was much younger. She often communicated with him through email and a Blackberry phone from her home in Islamabad. She even wanted to convert to Islam, marry him, and travel to Istanbul with him. Their chats included talk about her work and also spiritual topics like Sufism and poetry.
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Around 70 emails were found from accounts created for her by the Pakistani agents. These emails included important information that could help Pakistan. Investigators believe Gupta had personal complaints against the Indian government and this made her more vulnerable to being manipulated.
Gupta had also visited Jammu and Kashmir in 2010 to collect information about a major hydroelectric project, which she shared with Rana.
Indian officials became suspicious when she started showing unusual interest in topics beyond her job. She was recalled to Delhi under the pretext of helping with the SAARC summit. But once her suspicious activities were confirmed, she was arrested.
In 2018, a court found Gupta guilty under the Official Secrets Act. The court said the information she shared was very sensitive and important for India's foreign policy and national security.
After her conviction, Gupta lived alone in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. She died in October 2021 at the age of 64. At the time of her death, her appeal against the conviction was still pending in the Delhi High Court.
[With TOI inputs]
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