Explore Business Standard
Espionage
Prosecutors filed new espionage charges against Istanbul's jailed mayor on Monday, intensifying the judicial pressure on the opposition politician seen as a top rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new charges against Ekrem Imamoglu stem from an investigation launched last week into alleged links between his political campaign and a businessman arrested in July for reportedly carrying out intelligence activities on behalf of foreign governments. Imamoglu's former campaign manager, Necati Ozkan, and journalist Merdan Yanardag were also charged. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Imamoglu who his already in pretrial detention on corruption charges is suspected, among other things, of transferring personal data of Istanbul residents as part of an effort to secure international funding for his campaign. Imamoglu rejected the accusations as nonsense in a statement posted on social media. Even the claim that I burned down Rome would have been more credible than this nonsense, .
A Hisar court on Monday extended till September 3, the judicial custody of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested in May on suspicion of espionage. Melhotra appeared before judicial magistrate (first class) Sunil Kumar, who remanded her to judicial custody till September 3, her lawyer Kumar Mukesh said. Malhotra, who hails from Hisar and ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO", was arrested by Hisar Police on May 16. She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). On June 9, a court rejected her regular bail plea. Police had then opposed the bail, arguing that the investigation in this case was still underway. Hisar Police previously said no evidence emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military or defence-related information, but claimed she was in contact with some people and was aware that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives. Police sources had previously said sh
A local court on Monday extended the judicial custody of social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra and fixed her case's hearing on June 23. The 33-year-old YouTuber appeared before the court of Hisar Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Sunil Kumar through video conferencing on Monday which extended her judicial custody by two weeks. "The court has extended her judicial custody and fixed June 23 for the next hearing in this case," her lawyer Kumar Mukesh said. Hisar Police arrested Malhotra on suspicion of espionage on May 16. She was subsequently remanded to five days of police custody by the court. Following the completion of the remand, the court extended it by four more days on the police's plea for further questioning. On May 26, the court remanded her to judicial custody for 14 days. Malhotra, who hails from the city, ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya N
The Delhi Police has arrested a man from Rajasthan for allegedly aiding Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) by supplying Indian mobile SIM cards for espionage activities, officials said on Thursday. The accused, identified as Kasim (34), had travelled to Pakistan twice -- first in August 2024 and again in March 2025 -- and stayed there for about 90 days, they said. During his visits, he is suspected to have met officials of the Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a senior police officer said. Kasim, a resident of Gangora village in Deeg district, was apprehended earlier in the day and is currently in police remand, the officer said. "In September 2024, the Special Cell received intelligence inputs that Indian mobile numbers were being misused by PIOs to gather sensitive information related to the Indian Army and government establishments. These mobile SIM cards were allegedly procured in India and sent across the border with the help of Indian nationals,"
A court here on Monday remanded YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra to judicial custody after the end of her police remand in a case of alleged espionage. The 33-year-old travel influencer was produced in the court. A police spokesperson said that they did not seek her further remand after which the court sent her to jail. Meanwhile, data from Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop, which had been sent for forensic examination, has been recovered, police sources said on Monday. "Nearly 10-12 terabytes of data has been recovered. Further investigation in this regard is under progress," they said. After her arrest, the police had sent Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop for forensic examination. Malhotra's four bank accounts are also being examined. The court had extended Malhotra's police remand by four days when the YouTuber -- arrested on suspicion of espionage -- was last week produced before the court at the end of her five-day police remand. Malhotra was among the 12 people
A court here on Thursday extended the police remand of content creator and social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra by four days, a police spokesperson said. The 33-year-old YouTuber -- arrested on suspicion of espionage -- was produced before the court at the end of her five-day police remand. Malhotra was among the 12 people arrested from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the past two weeks on suspicion of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India. The Hisar native ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension last week and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Hisar police said on Wednesday that no evidence had emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military- or defence-related information. But she was definitely in contact with some people, knowing that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives, they had ...
A ninth US telecom firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official has said. Biden administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. But deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks. The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China's hacking sophistication. The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to
A Russian court on Friday convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges his employer and the US have rejected as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicised legal system. Gershkovich, his employer and the US government vehemently denied the charges. US officials and The Wall Street Journal have denounced the trial as a sham. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the US, and has been behind bars ever since. He was the first US journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986, at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich's arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country has enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.
Russian prosecutors sought a prison sentence of 18 years on Friday for Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is on trial on espionage charges that he, his employer and the US vehemently deny. Court officials said the prosecutors made the request during closing arguments in a closed-door court session in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. US officials and The Wall Street Journal have denounced the secretive and rapid trial in the country's highly politicized legal system as a sham and illegitimate. Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the US. He has been behind bars ever since.