Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Refutes Rahul’s Epstein Files Claim

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said he had met Jeffrey Epstein on “three or max four” occasions as part of a delegation linked to an international body, and asserted that his interactions had “nothing to do” with the offences for which the American financier was convicted. 

Puri’s remarks came after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi alleged that the minister’s name figured in the ‘Epstein Files’ released in the United States.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP national headquarters, Puri said, “After I resigned as



India’s ambassador to the UN, I was invited to join the International Peace Institute (IPI) a few months later. 

I was secretary general of the Independent Commission (ICM) on Multilateralism, set up in the IPI as a project.”

“My boss in the IPI, Terje Rod-Larsen, was the person who knew this particular infamous person Epstein and it is as part of a delegation of the IPI or the ICM that I met Epstein on a few occasions, three or max four,” he said, adding that the ICM dealt with international and thematic issues and that Epstein was not part of it.