Hardeep Puri Acknowledges 3 Or 4 Epstein Meetings, Denies Any Wrongdoing
India-West News Desk
NEW DELHI – Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on February 11 acknowledged that he had met Jeffrey Epstein “three or four times” over several years, insisting the interactions were limited, professional, and unrelated to the disgraced financier’s criminal conduct.
His remarks came after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised in Parliament that Puri’s name, along with that of industrialist Anil Ambani, appeared in the US Department of Justice documents linked to Epstein.
Gandhi questioned why Ambani was “not in jail” and suggested that references in the files could be placing pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the context of an India-US interim trade deal.
He said that such material created “direct pressure” on the Prime Minister and added that in a “normal situation” policy decisions on data, farmers, energy security, and defense would not unfold as they had.
Addressing a press conference hours later, Puri, who used to be the Ambassador to the US said, “Out of roughly three million emails, there are references to only three or four meetings. I met Epstein on a few occasions as part of an official delegation and exchanged just one email. My interactions were entirely professional.”
Puri explained that the meetings occurred through his association with the International Peace Institute, where he served as Secretary General of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism.
Asked about Epstein’s 2008 conviction as a sex offender and the fact that their interactions took place afterward, Puri reiterated that contact was minimal. “Many of us had doubts. That is why people like us left,” he said, without elaborating.
He described Epstein as a prominent figure in New York social circles at the time. “Half the world that interacted with him had no clue to his past,” Puri said, arguing that professional engagement does not imply endorsement. Drawing a comparison from his diplomatic career, he recalled negotiating with LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran as a young diplomat in Colombo. “Does that make me share the terrorist’s values?” he asked.
The controversy follows earlier remarks by the Ministry of External Affairs dismissing references in the released files to Prime Minister Modi’s 2017 visit to Israel.
