'Pak' spy YouTuber Jasbir Singh's police custody extended by 2 days
A Mohali court on Saturday extended the police custody of Punjab-based YouTuber, Jasbir Singh Mahal, who was arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan with links to the Jyoti Malhotra espionage case, by two days.The YouTuber, who runs the channel "Jaan Mahal" with over 1.1 million subscribers, was produced before the court after his three-day police remand expired on Saturday. Police had sought a seven-day remand, but the court granted only two days.advertisementJasbir Singh (41), a resident of Mahlan village in Punjab's Rupnagar district, was first taken into custody by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), Mohali, based on actionable intelligence on Wednesday.
Jasbir Singh is the second digital content creator to be arrested in recent weeks, after Haryana-based Jyoti Malhotra, with whom he was also in regular contact.During the hearing on Saturday, Singh's counsel, Mohit Dhupar, claimed his client had been summoned by the Haryana Police on June 6 to join the probe into the espionage case, but he was arrested by Punjab Police. "Punjab Police might have felt that if Haryana Police arrested Singh, it would be their insult," claimed Dhupar.The counsel also denied his client was spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "Many people visited Pakistan multiple times. Did they become guilty (of doing wrong) by visiting the neighbouring nation," Dhupar said in reply to a question.advertisementThe counsel also denied Punjab Police's claims that 150 Pakistani contacts were retrieved from Jasbir Singh's phone.The allegations against Singh are that he was allegedly in close touch with Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested last month on charges of spying for Pakistan.After his arrest on Wednesday, an old video of Jasbir Singh surfaced showing him praising Pakistani police officers during his visit to the neighbouring country.Jasbir was provided high-level security by Pakistani police and intelligence agencies during his visits - something not usually extended to regular vloggers.According to Punjab Police, just like Malhotra, Jasbir was also in touch with Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish - an ISI handler who worked at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Danish had also "trapped" Jyoti and was developing her as an intelligence asset.Officials said Singh attended the Pakistan National Day celebration at the Pakistani Embassy in Delhi on Danish's invitation, where he interacted with Pakistani Army personnel and vloggers. He has travelled to Pakistan three times - in 2020, 2021 and 2024.So far, Punjab Police has arrested seven people for allegedly spying for Pakistan. Falaksher Masih and Suraj Masih were arrested from Ajnala in Amritsar and a 31-year-old woman, Guzala and Yameen Mohamad, both residents of Malerkotla, were also taken into custody last month.Two more persons - Sukhpreet Singh and Karanbir Singh - were later arrested by police from Gurdaspur for sharing sensitive military information with the ISI.With agency inputs
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