New Delhi: Hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of Hardeep Singh Puri’s name figuring in the Epstein files, the Union minister said in a press conference Wednesday that they had ‘minimal interaction’ and only as part of a delegation.
Stating he met Epstein “three or four times” over a period of eight years, Puri said all of this was as part of an official delegation linked to the International Peace Institute (IPI), and that the interactions between them “had nothing to do with charges against” Epstein.
A convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein died in a Manhattan prison on 10 August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.
Stressing that his meetings with Epstein were limited and strictly within the framework of institutional interactions, Puri accused Gandhi of making baseless allegations. He maintained they met only three to four times and only exchanged one email.
Speaking outside Parliament earlier in the day, Gandhi had suggested that the “pressure” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to agree to an India-US interim trade deal could be linked to “US Department of Justice files on Epstein naming Hardeep Puri and Anil Ambani”.
Puri said in the press conference that his name was mentioned during the ongoing Budget session of Parliament in the context of some developments elsewhere. Referring to the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in tranches, he said, three million emails have been released, covering the period from May 2009, when Puri joined as India’s Ambassador to the UN in New York, until he became a minister in 2017.
“During this period, there are references to only three or four meetings, and my interactions were entirely professional,” Hardeep Puri said. “Just three-four references out of three million emails…I met Epstein on a few occasions as part of a delegation (and) exchanged just one email.”
“Our interactions had nothing to do (with the crimes he is accused of),” he said, adding that they talked about ‘Make in India’.
Puri also said, “I was invited to join the International Peace Institute…My interactions [with Epstein] were professional and related to the Independent Commission on Multilateralism (ICM), where the chair was the former Australian Prime Minister, and I served as Secretary-General. My boss at IPI Terje Rod-Larsen knew Epstein and I met him only on a few occasions, three or at max four times to be precise, as part of a delegation.”
“Our interactions had nothing to do [with the charges against Epstein],” he said.
The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas went on to say that he had no interest in Epstein’s activities. “For them, I was not the ‘right person’…Epstein called me two-faced. Rahul should read the emails.”
Asked about Epstein being convicted as a sex offender in 2008 and their interaction taking place much after that, Puri reiterated that the interaction between them was ‘minimal’.
“In 2008, he pled guilty, yes, for a charge that he was soliciting the favors of a woman who was underage. That was it. Rest of these stories got to be known much later. But believe me, many of us had doubts about them. That’s why people like us left,” he said.
Puri went on to add, “He [Epstein] was a very prominent member of New York society. Half the world that interacted with him had no clue to his past. We have to deal with people in our lifetime. I was a young first secretary in Colombo and I was sent to negotiate with a man called Velupillai Prabhakaran who was LTTE chief. Just because I was negotiating with Prabhakaran who is LTTE chief and who was later alleged to be was responsible for death of assasination of our Prime Minister does that make me share the terrorist’s value.”
Referring to his first encounter with Epstein, Puri said, “I can tell you frankly the first time that I met him I was ambushed. I was ambushed. I was told by somebody, by my boss, that I want to take you and the chairman of the Commission and other members of the board to a dinner. So I said where? He said I won’t tell you the address because if you get the address you may not go there.”
Slamming Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Puri said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be moving a privilege notice against the Congress leader.
“There is a young leader among us who raised certain points in Parliament today. He has a habit of making baseless allegations,” Puri said. The Congress last month had demanded Modi’s clarification over mentions of his name in the Epstein files. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed the references as “trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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