Priyanka Senapati in CBCID Radar

Bhubaneswar: Following the arrest of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen, Odisha police are investigating her links with YouTuber Priyanka Senapati, who is from the State. Inspector General of Police (IGP) CID Crime Branch, Sarthak Sarangi, said that facts are being verified.

“We have just received information that YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra visited Puri’s Jagannath temple and posted a video regarding it on Instagram. She also visited Chilika and Konark. She was in touch with a YouTuber from Odisha. We are verifying all the facts. We are in touch with our counterparts in Haryana regarding Jyoti Malhotra,” the police official said.

Jyoti Malhotra, a resident of Hisar, Haryana, was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen. Puri Superintendent of Police, Vinit Agrawal, said that they are in touch with the Haryana police over the matter.

SP Agrawal said, “Puri Police is investigating. We are in touch with Haryana and several state and central agencies.” According to Shashank Kumar Sawan, Superintendent of Police (SP) Hisar, Malhotra was being developed as an asset and had maintained ties with other YouTube influencers and Pakistani nationals.

Sawan stated, “She was in touch with other YouTube influencers, and they were also in contact with the Pakistan Information Officers (PIOs). She used to go to Pakistan, like on sponsored trips. She was in Pakistan before the Pahalgam attack, and the investigation is ongoing to establish any possible linkages.”

Jyoti Malhotra was interrogated for allegedly passing information to Pakistan. She allegedly met a Pakistani officer, Ahsan-ur-Rahim, in Delhi, travelled to Pakistan twice, and shared sensitive information.

Hisar DSP Kamaljeet said that the police has taken the woman on a five-day remand. She has been booked under Official Secret Act and relevant sections of BNS. The DSP said that police received “some suspicious things” from her mobile and laptop.

Yesterday, based on inputs that we had, we arrested Jyoti, daughter of Haris Kumar, under the Official Secret Act and BNS 152. We have received some suspicious things after we recovered her mobile and laptop. We have taken her on a five-day remand, and further investigation is on. She was in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen,” Kamaljeet said.

During the preliminary investigation, the woman told the police that she went to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to apply for a visa and met a man named Ahsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish.

She also told the police that after exchanging numbers, she started talking to Ahsan-ur-Rahim and travelled twice to Pakistan. Officials said that the woman also told during the investigation that Ahsan-ur-Rahim arranged for her stay and travel, and arranged meetings with Pakistani security and intelligence agencies.

Haris Malhotra, father of the woman arrested by Haryana Police on charges of spying, has said that his daughter made YouTube videos and had visited Pakistan. He demanded the return of the phones taken by the police.

He said that police first came to their house on Thursday. He said that police have taken their bank documents, phone, laptop, and passport. He said his daughter used to visit Delhi and had been in Hisar for the last four-five days. “She made YouTube videos. She used to visit Pakistan and other places,” Haris Malhotra told newsmen.

Asked how many times she had visited Pakistan, Malhotra said he did not know. He said she went to Pakistan after getting the necessary permissions. “If she has some friends there, can’t she call them? I have no demands, but give us our phones. A case has been registered against us,” he said.

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