Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday rejected allegations linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, describing the claims as “baseless” and politically motivated. The controversy follows references to Puri in a tranche of documents related to Epstein that were recently made public in the United States.
According to publicly available reports, Puri’s name appears in a limited number of email exchanges and meeting references dating back to 2014-15, when he was associated with the New York-based International Peace Institute.
Responding to the allegations, Puri said he met Epstein “three or four times” in the course of official or delegation-related engagements and denied any inappropriate association.
Some of the emails reportedly reference discussions involving LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in a professional context. However, no public reporting has presented evidence suggesting any wrongdoing by Puri.
The matter sparked a political exchange in Parliament, with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi raising questions over the references. In response, Puri said the documents contain millions of emails and that only a handful mention him over several years.
The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier dismissed references to Indian figures in the documents, saying they lack context and do not establish misconduct.
