Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Jun 7: A sensational twist has rocked the case involving Indian YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, as intelligence agencies have unearthed a direct link between her and retired Pakistani police Sub-Inspector Nasir Dhillon, now accused of spearheading covert operations against India.
Sources familiar with the investigation revealed that Malhotra maintained personal contact with Dhillon, even featuring alongside him in a podcast episode—an encounter that allegedly took place during one of her visits to Pakistan.
Dhillon, who reinvented himself as a YouTube personality after retiring from the Pakistani police force, initially posed as a champion of peace and cultural understanding between India and Pakistan. However, investigators now believe that Dhillon’s true role was far more insidious: a covert operative for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and military establishment.
Authorities allege that Dhillon leveraged his YouTube presence to approach Indian content creators, forging relationships under the guise of cross-border dialogue. Once trust was established, he allegedly acted as a pipeline to introduce ISI contacts, gradually drawing these influencers into tasks designed to gather sensitive intelligence on Indian Army operations and security infrastructure.
Malhotra, 36, is suspected to be one of several Indian YouTubers drawn into this web of deception.
Further complicating the case, investigators discovered that Dhillon maintained ties with Ehsan-ur-Rahim (alias Danish), a Pakistani High Commission staffer who was expelled from India on May 13 for suspected espionage activities. Evidence indicates that Danish and Dhillon were key nodes in a larger, well-coordinated spy ring operating under diplomatic cover.
Malhotra was arrested on May 16 under charges framed in the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. She has since been subjected to multiple rounds of interrogation by both local and central intelligence agencies.
Her arrest forms part of a broader crackdown that has so far netted 12 individuals in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, all suspected of being entangled in this alleged espionage network exploiting Indian digital influencers.
As the investigation progresses, security agencies are intensifying efforts to identify more potential infiltrators, raising urgent alarms about the emerging threat of social media being weaponized as a new battleground for espionage and subversion.