The photo of PM Modi meeting gamers is falsely shared as him meeting Jyoti Malhotra
On 17 May 2025, Jyoti Malhotra — a travel vlogger and YouTuber from Haryana — was arrested by the Hisar police on charges of espionage. According to reports, she is accused of transmitting sensitive information about India to Pakistan’s intelligence agency via encrypted messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat (here, here, and here).
In this context, a photo (here and here ) has gone viral on social media, claiming to show Prime Minister Modi posing with a group of young people, including a young woman alleged to be Jyoti Malhotra. Let’s verify the authenticity of this photo and uncover the truth behind the claim.
Claim: The viral photo shows YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan, with Prime Minister Modi.
Fact: The woman in the viral photo is not Jyoti Malhotra. She is Payal Dhare, a well-known Indian gamer. The photo was taken during a meeting in April 2024 when Prime Minister Modi interacted with India’s top gamers to discuss topics like the gaming industry’s growth, government support for creativity, the distinction between gaming and gambling, and women’s participation. Hence, the claim is FALSE.
Upon searching for more information about the viral photo using Google Lens, we found a video featuring the same visual. The video was uploaded on Prime Minister Modi’s official YouTube channel on 13 April 2024. According to the video description, PM Modi interacted with some of India’s leading gamers—Tirth Mehta, Payal Dhare, Animesh Agarwal, Anshu Bisht, Naman Mathur, Mithilesh Patankar, and Ganesh Gangadhar—where he played PC and VR games with them. During the interaction, they discussed topics such as the growth of the gaming industry, government support for creative fields, the difference between gaming and gambling, and women’s participation in gaming. It was confirmed that the young woman seen in the video is gamer Payal Dhare, not Jyoti Malhotra.
We also found that the video description includes a link to Payal Dhare’s YouTube channel, where she uploaded the same video on 13 April 2024, documenting her meeting with Prime Minister Modi.
We also found additional posts related to this meeting (here, here, here, and here) on Payal Dhare’s official Instagram handle. In addition, several news reports and YouTube videos confirm that the woman in the viral photo is not Jyoti Malhotra (here, here, here and here).
To sum up, the photo of Prime Minister Modi meeting with gamers is falsely shared as him meeting Jyoti Malhotra in the past.