At least 12 people were arrested from various states over the weekend on charges of spying for Pakistan. Police investigation suggests that the group — which included YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra — had been part of an Islamabad-linked espionage network operating in north India. Allegations have also been levelled against travel influencer Navankur Chaudhary (also known as Yatri Doctor) with many on social media flagging his ties to Malhotra and his visit to the other country.
Photos of Malhotra and Chaudhary posing together during a party at the Pakistan High Commission have since gone viral — with netizens levelling a barrage of charges against the travel influencer. Many have also shared older clips featuring the doctor-turned-travel vlogger older clips which showed Chaudhary criticising a BSF Jawan and allegedly displaying an incorrect map of India. He has however insisted that a “fake narrative” was being built and vowed to file defamation cases.
“Bhai main Pakistan sirf ek baar gaya hun,” he declared in a social media post on Sunday evening.
Chaudhary claimed that he had been to Pakistan as part of his ongoing quest to visit mission to visit all 197 countries in the world. According to his social media bio the Yatri Doctor has so far visited 144 nations. He also refuted any link to Malhotra — contending that she had approached him ‘as a fan’ during the visit.
“I treated her like a fan. I can’t look inside a person to see what they are…I didn’t know her personally before that day…we had never met before. We only spoke briefly about YouTube,” he clarified.
Who is Navankur Chaudhary?
The ‘Yatri Doctor’ is an Indian travel vlogger and influencer with over 6.5 lakh followers on Instagram. He was born in March 1996 and completed his MBBS from Madras Medical College in 2015. The Rohtak native had worked briedly as a doctor before switching tracks to pursue his love for travel. He now runs a successful YouTube channel called Yatri Doctor which has nearly 2 million subscribers. He has also amassed around 6.5 lakh followers on Instagram.
His social media profiles indicate that Chaudhary is on a mission to visit every country in the world — while documenting the process for his social media feed. As per his social media profiles, he has already been to 144 countries in the world. His LinkedIn profile indicates that Chaudhary is currently based out of Delhi.