23-05-2025
Known social media face but a stranger at home: Who is Jyoti Malhotra, arrested for espionage
She was the girl who travelled – across India, Bhutan, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia and China – and documented it. Her social media posts filled with everyday minutiae, from travel tips to the food she ate, Jyoti Malhotra's 'Travel with Jo' had over 3,77,000 subscribers and an Instagram account with over 1,32,000 followers.
Yet, in New Aggarsain Colony Extension, a quiet neighbourhood on the outskirts of Hisar in Haryana, her name barely elicits a reaction. Last week, Jyoti was arrested on charges of espionage. The Hisar Police, which is investigating the case, has alleged that she was found sharing 'sensitive information' with an official of the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.
'We don't know much about her. We heard about her having a YouTube channel only after she came in the news,' says a neighbour, Seema.
'Everyone in this colony mostly keeps to themselves, she wasn't any different,' says another resident. 'She rarely came up to people and greeted them.'
Jyoti has been charged under Section 152 (acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and under various sections of the Officials Secrets Act.
On LinkedIn, Jyoti describes herself as 'a blogger in saree'. The description reads: 'From her youth, she always wanted to explore and developed a soul of a wanderer. Her passion of travel is also her profession now and she travels and shares her experiences as a travel blogger which are liked around the world and followed by travellers visiting her suggested locations. Among her fans and followers, she is known as a Saree Gal – A blogger in saree.'
Jyoti's vlogging began with a trip to Manali, Himachal Pradesh, on August 7, 2019. The description of the video reads: 'Hi friends. Sat Shri Akaal. I am new on YouTube'.
Although that video has only 10,000 views, her channel began picking up over the next few years, attracting sponsors — from state tourism departments, visa apps and ticket booking sites to fashion and skincare products – and even reaching a milestone of 100,000 subscribers in March last year, a feat that secured her the YouTube Silver Play button.
In her videos, she would refer to her viewers as 'Jo Family' and would have conversations with locals – from the salesperson in a local departmental store in Bali, Indonesia, to a juice vendor in Lahore.
Over the last two years, she uploaded 264 videos, including of her trips to Thailand (October 2024), Dubai (December 2024) and Kerala (January this year). Her Kerala trip shows her on board the Vande Bharat during its trial run between Thiruvananthapuram to Kasargod.
But it was her two visits to Pakistan – the first in April 2024, when she took a train from Wagah to Lahore, and the other in March this year, over a month before the Pahalgam terror attack – that brought her under official scrutiny, and led to her arrest. According to the police, she allegedly told them that it was in 2023, during a visit to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi for a travel visa, that she met Ahsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, a now-expelled official at the commission. Danish was declared persona non-grata and expelled from India on May 13 after he was accused of spying.
'I had taken Ahsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish's mobile number… and then I started talking to Ahsan… After that I traveled to Pakistan twice where I met Ahsan's acquaintance Ali Ahwan on the advice of Ahsan-ur-Rahim. Ali Ahwan made arrangements for my stay and travel. In Pakistan, Ali Ahwan arranged my meeting with Pakistani security and intelligence officials…,' the initial complaint quotes her as saying, adding that she kept in 'constant touch' with the Pakistani officials after she returned.
Her videos from Pakistan – which are accompanied by a link to the high commission's website – have secured her the most engagement: 12 million views for her train video and 1.2 million views for a March 19 video of her exploring Lahore's markets. On March 22, she uploaded a video of her attending an Iftar party at the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi that got her 4,23,000 views.
At her home, from where police arrested her on April 16, Jyoti's father Harish Malhotra, 58, a carpenter who stopped working during the pandemic following ill-health, says that while he knew about Jyoti's travel vlogs, he had no idea how she earned her living. 'She started making videos after the lockdown. When she wasn't travelling, she was at home editing videos. I never asked her what she was making. She never shared or invited me on her trips. I did not know she had started making money from her videos, and never asked her to contribute to the household expenses,' says her father.
Jyoti, an only child, grew up with her father and paternal grandparents after her parents separated when she was six years old. With her grandparents having passed away a few years ago, she lived with her father and his younger brother Khushal, now in his 50s, in Hisar.
Harish's illnesses, of which he refuses to disclose details, require regular medication, he says, adding that the family's sole source of income is the monthly pension of around Rs 25,000 that Khushal gets from the state electricity department from where he retired.
'Every month, Jyoti would withdraw money from my brother's account and give it to the family,' Harish says.
A student of Hisar's Vivekanand High School, Jyoti secured a BA degree from Fateh Chand College, Hisar, and an degree from Kurukshetra University in 2016 before eventually moving to Delhi to work for a garments and apparel export company as a senior merchandiser.
Her teachers at Vivekanand High School describe her as 'sharp girl with a rebellious streak'. 'She was very intelligent… She was also straightforward while dealing with people. If anyone took her place in class, she was not one to just quietly let it slip. She would make her displeasure known,' says Sunita Sharma, a coordinator and teacher at the school for over 30 years.
Principal A K Sharma says he lost touch with Jyoti after she cleared her Class 10 in 2006. 'Her parents never came to school for anything. It was always her bua (paternal aunt),' he says, adding that it was only through news channels that he knew of Jyoti's vlog.
Less than a week after the initial police complaint, Hisar Superintendent of Police Shashank Kumar Siwan, who is overseeing the investigation, now believes she may not be the 'super spy' she was portrayed as. 'Offences were definitely committed. But it's not what is being shown in the media. She is not some super spy, nor did she infiltrate our strategic operations. So far, no vital information about our military or intelligence appears to have been shared by her with the Pakistanis,' he says, adding that the investigation is ongoing. She has also been questioned by central agencies.
SP Siwan says investigators are now looking into Jyoti's finances – including her stays at five-star hotels.
At the same time, investigators are also looking into her collaborations with other YouTubers, including one based in Odisha, although no arrests have been made so far.
'Her videos of Kerala, she claims, were sponsored by the tourism department but we will have to check,' the SP says.
