The Punjab Police on Tuesday arrested YouTuber Jasbir Singh for his alleged involvement in a Pakistani espionage network.

Singh, who is from Mahlan village in Punjab’s Rupnagar district, runs a YouTube channel named “JaanMahal Video”, which has more than a million subscribers.

Gaurav Yadav, the state’s director general of police, alleged that Singh was associated with Pakistani intelligence operative Shakir, alias Jutt Randhawa, who is allegedly part of a “terror-backed espionage network”.

Yadav also said that Singh had close contact with Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested on May 17 for allegedly spying.

Singh was in contact with Ehsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish, a Pakistani working at the country’s High Commission in New Delhi.

On May 13, Danish was declared persona non-grata by New Delhi and was ordered to leave India. In diplomatic parlance, an official declared persona non-grata is deemed unwelcome by the host country.

“Investigations have revealed that Jasbir attended the Pakistan National Day event in Delhi on Danish’s invitation, where he met Pakistani Army officials and vloggers,” Yadav said.

The police chief said that Singh had travelled to Pakistan in 2020, 2021 and 2024 and that the YouTuber’s electronic devices had several Pakistan-based contact numbers, “now under detailed forensic scrutiny”.

After Malhotra was arrested, Singh allegedly attempted to erase traces of his communications with Pakistani intelligence officials to avoid being detected, claimed the police.

A first information report was registered in the matter. “Investigations are underway to dismantle the broader espionage-terror network and identify all collaborators,” Yadav added.

On Tuesday, the Rajasthan Police said that a state government employee, who was earlier detained on suspicion of spying for Pakistan, has been arrested. The person, Shakur Khan, had been in regular contact with persons associated with the Pakistani High Commission, including Danish, the police said.

The arrests came amid heightened military tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad that escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

Over the past few weeks, at least 16 persons have been arrested across the country on allegations of spying for Pakistan and leaking sensitive information about Operation Sindoor.

On Saturday, the National Investigation Agency conducted raids at 15 locations in eight states that were suspected to be linked to alleged Pakistani intelligence operatives.