Puri mounts sharp rebuttal to Rahul, sets record straight

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, on Wednesday, mounted a sharp rebuttal to allegations raised raised by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who had cited recently released US documents linked to infamous financier Jeffrey Epstein during a parliamentary intervention.

- SIMONTINI BHATTACHARJEE

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri addresses a press conference at BJP headquarters, in New Delhi, on Wednesday

(PTI)

Addressing the media within hours of Gandhi's remarks, Puri categorically rejected the claims, asserting that his limited, strictly professional interactions with Epstein—mentioned only “three or four times” among nearly three million emails released by the US Department of Justice—had no connection whatsoever to the crimes Epstein was later accused of.

Clarifying the context of the references, Puri said, “My name appears in a limited number of emails that are now in the public domain—nearly three million emails have been released. These references pertain to a period spanning nearly eight years, when I served first as India’s Ambassador to the United Nations and later as a private citizen.”

He further emphasised that there were “at most three or four meetings," all of which were “entirely professional” and had to do with his association with the International Peace Institute (IPI) and the Independent Commission on Multi lateralism, a body constituted to assess whether the United Nations was “fit for purpose” as it approached its 75th anniversary.

“Any attempt to draw a line between these professional engagements and unrelated criminal allegations is not just misleading—it is deliberate misrepresentation,” Puri said.

“Selective distortion” and Linked In, Digital India, and other such initiatives The minister described his principal meeting during that period as not with Epstein but with Linked In’s cofounder, Reid Hoffman. “My primary interaction was with Mr Reid Hoffman, whom I invited to India,” he said.