Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti arrested on espionage charge.
Credit: Instagram/@travelwithjo1
Thiruvananthapuram: YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was held for spying for Pakistan, had earlier visited Kerala and made promotional videos on request from the state tourism department.
According to the tourism department, she was among the influencers engaged by the state tourism minister in the last two years to boost tourism. Her travel across Kerala was sponsored by the tourism department.
Tourism minister Mohammed Riyaz said that she was invited before the spying charges against her surfaced. The state government would not knowingly invite any one involved in any sort of spying activities, he added.
Malhotra's Kerala visit also came under the scanner of intelligence agencies after she was held on charges of spying.
BJP former Kerala president K Surendran launched an attack against the CPM government in Kerala accusing it of sponsoring the trip of one involved in spying for Pakistan.
Malhotra visited Kerala earlier this year and also last year, and posted a series of videos on her social media platforms. Munnar, Kovalam, Alappuzha, Kozhikode and Kannur were among the places she visited and posted videos. She also travelled across Kerala by train to promote budget tourism. She was found to have visited key installations like the Cochin Shipyard. Her suspected visit to Padanna village in Kasargod also became controversial as many youths from the region had earlier joined ISIS.
Malhotra, who ran YouTube channel 'Travel with JO' with 3.7 lakh subscribers, hails from Hisar in Haryana. She was arrested in May after she was found to be in contact with some Pakistan intelligence operatives. She was booked under the relevant sections of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Kerala tourism's promotional strategies recently received much attention as an artistic version of the UK F-35B fighter aircraft stranded in Thiruvananthapuram over the last three weeks was used for promoting Kerala as an "amazing place which the UK F-35B did not want to leave".