A set of two photos - one showing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Uttar Pradesh MLA Aditi Singh and the second of Gandhi with a supporter at the Bharat Jodo Yatra are viral falsely claiming that he is posing with arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra.
BOOM found that both photos have been digitally altered, with Malhotra’s face superimposed onto the original photos.
Haryana Police arrested 33-year-old travel vlogger Jyoti Rani Malhotra on May 16, 2025, on spying for Pakistani intelligence agencies. Malhotra, who runs the YouTube channel Travel with Jo has over 377,000 subscribers, was allegedly sharing sensitive information with a Pakistan High Commission official in Delhi.
The two photos in which Gandhi can be seen with two different women are viral on X with the claim, "with YouTuber spy"
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FACT-CHECK: Digitally Altered Photos Peddled As Jyoti Malhotra
BOOM found that the claim that YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was pictured with Rahul Gandhi is false and the viral photos have been digitally manipulated.
The first photo shows Rae Bareli politician Aditi Singh with Gandhi, while the second one is from the Bharat Jodo Yatra in September 2022, showing him hugging a female supporter in Alappuzha, Kerala.
Results for a reverse image search on the image showed the original picture of Gandhi with Raebareli MLA Aditi Singh. Singh was part of the Congress in 2017 but switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2021, going on to win the 2022 elections from the constituency.
In the viral photo, Malhotra’s face has been superimposed with Singh's face to make the false claim. A comparison can be seen below:
We ran a reverse image search on the second photo and found it in posts from Bharat Jodo Yatra. The original photo was posted by Rahul Gandhi's official Facebook account on September 17, 2022.
Another photo of the same woman was shared on X by the women's wing of Congress on Septembed 18, 2022.
In the viral photo, Malhotra’s face has been digitally superimposed over that of the woman seen hugging Rahul Gandhi to falsely suggest it is the arrested YouTuber.
A comparison can be seen below:
