A photo is viral on social media where a group of young men and a woman are seen with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is being shared with the claim that the woman in the image is YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan. The face of the woman is circled in red in the vial photo.
Facebook user Jamshed Khan shared the picture and wrote, “Spy Jyoti Malhotra is a seasoned player.” (Archived link)
X User Anamika also shared the image and wrote, “What is this sister to terrorists doing with the leader of blind bhakts?” (Archived link)
Many other users also shared this picture with the same claims. (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)
ALSO READ: Viral photos of Rahul Gandhi with Jyoti Malhotra are morphed
Fact Check
We performed a reverse image search of this picture, and found multiple other versions where it is mentioned that PM Modi had an interaction with online gaming influencers. All of these posts are from last year.
On April 13, 2024, a video of the PM’s meeting with gamers was shared on the official YouTube channel of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The description of the video also mentions the name of the gamer as Payal Dhare and tags her YouTube channel. At the 31:36 mark in the video, a frame that looks similar to the viral picture is seen.
Alt News noticed that Payal Dhare had also posted a video of her meeting with PM Modi on April 13, 2024 on her YouTube channel. According to a report by News18, she hails from the Umranala village in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh and is an award-winning gamer.
Apart from this, we could not find any news reports to corroborate any meeting between Jyoti Malhotra and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We took a screenshot from Malhotra’s YouTube channel and compared it with this image of Payal Dhare. The two are clearly not the same.
To sum it up, the viral image is of gamer Payal Dhare and not of Jyoti Malhotra, but it is being used to claim that Malhotra met the Prime Minister Modi.
ALSO READ: Viral image of Akhilesh Yadav with Jyoti Malhotra, arrested on charges of ‘spying’, is fake
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