A Hisar court on Wednesday denied bail to YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested last month on espionage charges. A day earlier, Jyoti’s lawyer Kumar Mukesh had filed the bail application and the matter was placed before judicial magistrate first class Sunil Kumar today, who rejected the bail plea. On June 9, the court extended her judicial custody by two weeks till June 23. On May 26, Jyoti was sent to 14-day judicial custody by the court.
Talking to HT over the phone, her lawyer Kumar Mukesh said that he had objected to the sections imposed against Jyoti Malhotra in the first information report (FIR).
“As the investigation is currently underway in the case, the police were against her bail plea. After hearing both sides, the court rejected the bail plea. She went to Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 and at that time, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was in force but the Hisar police booked her under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act, which was Section 124-A (sedition ) under the IPC at that time. This section was kept in abeyance, which is why she can’t be prosecuted this,” Kumar added.
He said that the FIR was registered on the basis of her questioning on May 15, which is not legally permissible because a person can’t become a witness against himself/herself.
“The police could not place any evidence which proves that she was involved in spying. The Hisar superintendent of police (SP) himself said that she had no access to any military or defence related information but she has connections with some Pakistani operatives. If they have not recovered any information from her possession related to sharing sensitive information, then Sections 3 (spying) and 5 (communicating secret information to unauthorised individuals) of the Official Secrets Act, should be dropped from the FIR. The police should provide call details with such operatives. The police will have to prove that any of her Pakistani contacts are intelligence operatives,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“The police could not place any evidence which proves that she was involved in spying. The Hisar superintendent of police (SP) himself said that she had no access to any military or defence related information but she has connections with some Pakistani operatives. If they have not recovered any information from her possession related to sharing sensitive information, then Sections 3 (spying) and 5 (communicating secret information to unauthorised individuals) of the Official Secrets Act, should be dropped from the FIR. The police should provide call details with such operatives. The police will have to prove that any of her Pakistani contacts are intelligence operatives,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Travel blogger Jyoti, 33, a resident of Hisar, was arrested on May 16 for allegedly sharing sensitive information with Pakistani operatives.