Pakistan's 'spy' ring: Experts expose ISI's new tactic of social media influence, urge narco test

After Operation Sindoor, India busted an ISI spy ring involving travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra and several others for allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan.

Jyoti Malhotra arrested on suspicion of spying for Pakistan

Image Credit: ANI

New Delhi: Following Operation Sindoor — a decisive military strike targeting Pakistan-sponsored terror infrastructure and retaliatory positions of the Pakistan military — Indian authorities have arrested at least 12 individuals on charges of alleged espionage for Pakistan. Among those apprehended is Jyoti Malhotra, a Haryana-based YouTuber known for her travel vlogs.

Malhotra stands accused of transmitting sensitive information via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat to a diplomat stationed at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The diplomat in question was declared persona non grata and expelled from India on May 13.

As India ramps up counter-intelligence operations following the strike, Asianet Newsable English spoke to several national security experts to understand the modus operandi of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and its evolving tactics on Indian soil.

ISI’s Infiltration Strategy

According to Vibhuti Narayan Rai, former Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh and Special Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), “Spying is one of the world’s oldest profession. In their targeted areas, the spy agencies make their agents. Some of them are sleeper cells while some are the active ones. Since India is their target, ISI is carrying out activities here.”

Major General Ashok Kumar (Retd.), Director General of the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS), added, “ISI is deeply embedded in spreading Pakistan’s national agenda, using terrorism as part of their statecraft. They use multiple methods to achieve their aims.”

“While they use their own countrymen as well as those settled in other countries, they have also focused their efforts on Indian citizens," he added.

He elaborated that ISI agents often exploit Indian citizens, particularly those with radical views, through financial inducements, social media honey traps, and coercion. Besides, they also spread their network in the defence forces and paramilitary forces to extract information through lures/threats, they also scan Indian open source websites, sometimes they also pretend as senior officers on landline phone to extract information.

Highlighting a disturbing new trend, Kumar said, “Recently, they have adopted a new mechanism by recruiting social media influencers to spread their narrative. They extract photographic details of the country’s national assets, target smugglers and drug addicts and exploit the existing fault lines by magnifying them.”

“Carrying out terrorist attacks in different parts of the country has been their ultimate goal,” he highlighted.

Social Media Influencers in the Crosshairs

Vikram Singh, a former DGP and a recipient of the Limca Book of Records title as the "Most Decorated Police Officer" in 2014, raised serious concerns about the expanding reach of ISI into the influencer ecosystem.

Talking about ISI’s game-plan, Singh said, “Pakistan's spy agency was created in 1948 to learn all the dirty game tricks. Now, the ISI has been able to master their tricks and they have been able to successfully implement the scheme of laying out sleeper cells right across the sensitive areas.”

Referring to the Pahalgam terror attack and the alleged role of Indian nationals, Singh said, “You would know that it is impossible for people like you and me also to reach Pahalgam and other sensitive areas of Kashmir. But these people have been able to successfully put in sleeper cells in the form of illegal Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingyas. And now they have shifted the gears to induct the so-called social media influencers.”

“Now these social media influencers work at their behest and their income and their lifestyle is well beyond their known sources of income. I would repeat, well beyond their known sources of income, for a person who belongs to an average middle class family, has a flatty lifestyle. I am referring to you know --- Jyoti Malhotra, Devendra Singh Dhillon, Palak Sher Masih, Jafar Hussain, Armaan of Nuh and Shahdaab of Muradabad. I could go on… I have named just a few but what is common is that they are in touch with Pakistan and the ISI," he added.

“They were located at sensitive areas and they are living beyond their means. And also, if you are taking the photographs of Patiala and also of sensitive airstrips and airports, that is a cause of concern. I am happy that the country has risen to the occasion that the sleeper cells will have to be decimated and they have to be converted into dead cells. But the problem, the enormity of the problem you must understand is, it is not one sleeper cell, it is not five sleeper cells, it is hundreds and hundreds of sleeper cells. What you have been able to recover is just the tip of the iceberg," the former decorated police officer said.

"Every Patriot Must Be a Policeman in Plain Clothes"

Singh urged the public to adopt a vigilant mindset, stating, “Now, you have to put the scanner on the work that every Indian, every patriot will have to be a police officer in plain clothes and identify what could be a suspicious activity.”

He explained the markers of suspicious behaviour: “Visiting Pakistan or visiting Bangladesh more frequently than is natural, then defending the Pakistan High Commission staff, living beyond their means and then moving out with suspicious people.”

On Jyoti Malhotra’s travel history, Singh pointed out, “Take the case of Jyoti Malhotra, going to Pakistan thrice, going to Pahalgam in January, Pahalgam happens on April 22nd. Thereafter, she comes out with a pearl of wisdom and says that actually it was the job, it was the failure of the security staff in Pahalgam and the tourists should have been more alert. So, it is the tourists to blame that they had gone to Pahalgam? It is the tourists who made a mistake by not being alert and Pakistan is not at fault, the terrorists are not at fault?"

He also highlighted her alleged association with Pakistani individuals, saying, “And praising Pakistan to the skies, befriending them and shamelessly moving around and hobnobbing with Danish. And putting their names in her phone directory book as Jeet Randhawa. What business do you have of saving the names, not legitimate names, not original names, but camouflaging them.”

“So that when the agencies do check up your phone directory, you are able to come up with an alibi and try to get an escape route. That of course is not going to happen because every alphabet, every cookie will be analysed by digital analysis, and forensic analysis," he added.

Access to High Commission and High-Level Pakistani Contacts

Singh expressed shock at her regular invitations to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi: “They do not invite individuals of repute but she gets an invite for Iftar or the Pakistan National Day parties. She is a regular visitor to the high commission. Not only in the high commission but also in Pakistan.”

He revealed that her interview with senior Pakistani politician Mariam Nawaz Sharif was “facilitated” during one of her visits to Pakistan. “She is one of the senior most politicians belonging to the prime political family of Pakistan. Therefore, I feel that she is a very, very valuable asset and now you see the cover fire given by our journalists in India.”

Raising doubts over what the public is being told, Singh questioned: “Do you think for a moment that even if they recovered, will they share to the press? Please, have some respect for your investigating agencies. They will never be disclosed.”

Narco Test Demand

As the case unfolds, Singh strongly advocated for further interrogation methods to extract the truth. “My advice to investigating agencies is do whatever you can legitimately to get out and collect the information that she has,” he said, recommending narco analysis and polygraph tests for Jyoti Malhotra.

The revelations come at a critical juncture for Indian intelligence agencies, who are now not just tackling cross-border threats, but also a digitally camouflaged espionage network operating within its borders. The Jyoti Malhotra case, say experts, is just the beginning of a long, intricate web of ISI’s influence on Indian soil.