New Delhi: Intensifying action on possible cross-border espionage links, police have started investigating Odisha YouTuber Priyanka Senapati’s connection with travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra arrested for spying for Pakistan. Ms Senapati’s bank account and her contact with Ms Malhotra are being investigated. This comes days after she issued a clarification that the travel vlogger was her friend and they came into contact on YouTube. Priyanka also told that she was completely unaware of the serious charges against her. “Had I known she was spying for an enemy country, I would have never maintained any contact with her,” she said.
Police is also probing the communication between the two, with all of Ms Senapati’s social media accounts being investigated. She and her family have faced multiple rounds of questioning, where she was asked about her relationship with Ms Malhotra and the personal or local intelligence shared between the two. Priyanka’s father Rajkishore Senapati told that his daughter came into contact with Ms Malhotra through social media and helped her during the latter’s visit to Puri around seven to eight months back. He said Ms Senapati had visited Kartarpur in Pakistan four months ago, a video of which was uploaded on March 25 on her YouTube channel ‘Prii_vlogs’. She has 14,800 subscribers on the channel, which shows her travels within Odisha and to other parts of the country.
Also under scrutiny is the Jagannath Bhakt Niwas guest house, where Ms Malhotra stayed during her visit to Puri in September last year. The property’s manager said she arrived at the accommodation on September 21 with another woman and stayed for a day. “No one had come to meet her. She did not stay in the room for long, and would just come and go out after some time,” the manager said. Ms Malhotra was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen. She allegedly met a Pakistani officer Ahsan-ur-Rahim when she went to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to apply for a visa, travelled to Pakistan twice, and shared sensitive information, according to police.
