KOLKATA: The officials of the Kolkata Police are probing to figure out whether Santa Paul, the Bangladeshi model arrested from Kolkata earlier this week on charges of illegally staying in the country after securing fake Indian identity documents, was working as a spy in the country just like Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, police said on Saturday.
The officials are probing this new angle after learning through her social media account that Paul went to the India-Nepal-China border and recorded a video.
Police investigation also revealed that Paul had opened a page on social media called 'Asan Travels Kolkata and Bangladesh' where she was promoting her tourism business.
The police officials are also investigating whether Paul took a loan from any state-owned bank in India to open a hotel, based on her Facebook post.
A city police insider said that Paul had also travelled to several places in West Bengal and neighbouring Sikkim.
"She posted photographs and videos of her visits on social media. As a travel vlogger, she went to Nathu La in Sikkim. There, she took pictures of the India-Nepal-China border. Investigation is on to ascertain whether there are similarities between her case and that of Jyoti Malhotra, as she also used to travel to different places in India as a travel vlogger and take pictures and videos there, " the police insider added.
Jyoti Malhotra was an Indian travel vlogger, who ran the YouTube channel "Travel with JO".
In May this year, Malhotra was arrested by the police under the Official Secrets Act amid the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict.
Malhotra was accused of espionage, passing sensitive information to operatives of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).