Two images— one showing a woman being highlighted in a group photo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and another showing Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav posing with a woman—are being shared on social media to falsely claim that arrested YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra can be seen with the two political leaders.
BOOM analysed the two images, and found that the woman highlighted in the photo with Modi is a gamer named Payal Dhare, while the image of Malhotra with Yadav was found to be digitally altered.
Jyoti Rani Malhotra, a 33-year-old travel vlogger was arrested by Haryana Police on May 16, 2025, for allegedly spying for Pakistani intelligence agencies. According to police, Malhotra, who runs a YouTube channel called Travel with Jo, with over 377,000 subscribers was taken into custody after she was found allegedly sharing “sensitive information” with an official from the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.
The first photo shows Modi with a group of youngsters and highlights a girl's face with a red circle. The viral photo is being shared with a Hindi caption, which translates to English as, “Spy Jyoti Malhotra is an old player.”
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The second photo shows Malhotra standing beside Yadav and holding a Samajwadi Party manifesto. It is being shared on X with a caption, which translates to English as, “Friends, what is this traitor Jyoti Jasoos doing with the Samajwadi Party supremo? We don’t call these SP Yadmullah for nothing. #TraitorSP”
Click here to view, and here for an archive
FACT-CHECK: Unrelated And Edited Photos Peddled As Jyoti Malhotra
BOOM found the claim of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra being pictured with Modi and Yadav is false. The first photo is unrelated and misidentifies Indian gamer Payal Dhare as Malhotra posing with Modi. The second photo has been digitally altered, with Malhotra’s face superimposed onto a photo of Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav.
Photo 1: Unrelated group photo of Indian Gamers with PM Modi
BOOM ran a reverse image search on the first viral photo and found that it dates back to April 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with seven prominent Indian gamers. According to a video on this meet-up uploaded on Modi's official YouTube channel, the woman seen in the group photo is gamer Payal Dhare and not Jyoti Malhotra.
At the 31:38 mark in the video, Modi is seen gathering with the gamers for a group photo - which is an exact visual match with the first viral image.
Dhare also posted a photo on her Instagram handle after meeting Modi in April 2024.
Photo 2: Digitally altered photo peddled as Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra
BOOM found that the viral photo has been digitally manipulated by swapping the face of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s wife, Dimple Yadav, with that of Jyoti Malhotra.
The original photo was published by PTI in 2017, and shows Dimple Yadav holding the party’s manifesto alongside Akhilesh Yadav during its launch in January 2017, ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. In the viral photo, Malhotra’s face has been superimposed to make the false claim.
A comparison can be seen below:
Visuals from the Samajwadi Party’s 2017 manifesto launch, in which Dimple Yadav is seen standing to the left of Akhilesh Yadav, can be seen in the news report below at the 37. 57 minutes timestamp.
