Jyoti Rani Malhotra, a Haryana-based YouTuber, who has been arrested on charges of espionage and passing on secret information to Pakistan intelligence agencies, also came to Kolkata and visited different places in the city with a fellow YouTuber from West Bengal.
The fellow YouTuber from West Bengal, Soumit Bhattacharya, who was then based out of Asansol in West Burdwan district of West Bengal, has, however, claimed that his interactions with Jyoti were strictly on professional terms as a fellow YouTuber and also denied having any knowledge of her association with Pakistan intelligence agencies.
Soumit Bhattacharya also claimed that the investigating officials are aware of his innocence and hence had not contacted him as yet for questioning. He claimed that had he been aware of Jyoti’s association with Pakistan intelligence agencies, he would have surely made an attempt to stop her from coming to Kolkata.
Bhattacharya informed that during her tour to Kolkata, they together visited some popular Biriyani joints in the city as well as at Barrackpore in Kolkata-adjacent North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. Barrackpore, a cantonment township, has both Indian Army and Indian Air Force bases. The state police academy is also housed there.
During that tour, they also attended a marriage function of another fellow YouTuber at Liluah in the Kolkata-adjacent Howrah district of West Bengal. He also informed that during the visit, Jyoti made blog videos on the various places they visited together.
Bhattacharya said that innocent YouTubers are bound to get some bad names because of the involvement of Jyoti in espionage and her subsequent arrest in the matter. Jyoti visited Kolkata in February this year, and after going back from the city, she visited Pakistan in March this year. There, too, she made YouTube blogs at various popular places, as was evident in her social media accounts.