Jyoti Malhotra, a travel vlogger and YouTuber from Haryana, was arrested by Hisar police on 17 May 2025 on charges of espionage for Pakistan. Reports allege that she shared sensitive information related to India with Pakistan’s intelligence agency using encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat (here, here, and here).
In this context, a picture of Jyoti Malhotra has gone viral on social media (here, here, and here). In the picture, she is seen wearing a saffron cap and a stole with a lotus flower print. The logo of ‘Aaj Tak’ is also visible on the picture, along with the caption, “Haryana YouTuber arrested on charges of treason.” The post is being shared with claims that Jyoti Malhotra is associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: Photo shows Jyoti Malhotra wearing a BJP stole and cap, with the ‘Aaj Tak’ logo on it, suggesting her association with the BJP.
Fact: The viral picture is not real and is AI-generated. Aaj Tak has not shared this image. There are errors in the design of the BJP election symbol on Jyoti Malhotra’s cap, and AI detector tools have flagged it with a 99.9% and 99% likelihood of being AI-generated. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we reviewed Aaj Tak’s social media handles to check if they had posted this picture. However, no such picture was found on their accounts (here, here, and here). The media organisation shared a picture of Jyoti Malhotra on their X handle on 17 May 2025, accompanied by a caption reporting her arrest.
Upon close examination of the viral picture, several flaws were identified. The picture appears to have been artificially brightened. Additionally, there are errors in the design of the BJP election symbol on Jyoti Malhotra’s cap. The picture also shows an overall smoothened texture, a characteristic often seen in AI-generated images.
We then analysed the picture using the Hive AI detector tool, which indicated a 99.9% probability that the image is AI-generated. To further confirm this, we tested the same picture with another tool, Sightengine, which also showed a 99% likelihood of it being AI-generated.
Additionally, Aaj Fact Check also published an article on 19 May 2025 debunking this image.
To sum up, this viral image with the Aaj Tak logo of Jyoti Malhotra wearing a BJP stole and cap is AI-generated.
