Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri hit back at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday over the mention of his name in the Epstein Files, clarifying he only met the late and disgraced American financier "on a few occasions (and) as part of a delegation" and exchanged just one email with him.
Puri told reporters this afternoon, hours after Gandhi's explosive allegations in a parliamentary speech, that his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein "had nothing to do with the charges against him..."
The minister said his primary interaction at that time was with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and that he had invited the internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist to India.
"Just three-four references (to my name) 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," Puri said. "We talked about 'Make in India'."
"I had no interest in Epstein's activities. For them, I was not the 'right person'," he also said, adding that Epstein had called him "two-faced" and that Rahul Gandhi should read the emails.
Puri's strong response came after Rahul Gandhi, speaking to reporters outside Parliament, referred to US files on Epstein that mentioned Hardeep Puri and businessman Anil Ambani.
On January 31, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal strongly dismissed references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2017 visit to Israel in an email purportedly part of the recently released Epstein Files. He dubbed the reference "trashy ruminations" of a convicted criminal.
"We have seen reports of an email message from the so-called Epstein Files that has a reference to the Prime Minister and his visit to Israel. Beyond the fact of the Prime Minister's official visit to Israel in July 2017, the rest of the allusions in the email are little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal, which deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt," Jaiswal said.
Last month, the US Department of Justice released a vast new tranche of records from its files on Epstein, resuming disclosures under a law designed to shed light on what the government knew about his sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with wealthy and influential figures.
Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche said more than three million pages of documents were being released in the latest disclosure, alongside more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
The files, published on the department's website, include material that officials said had been withheld from an initial release in December.
The disclosures are mandated under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, enacted after months of political and public pressure. The law requires the government to open its files relating not only to Epstein but also to his longtime associate and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
(With inputs from IANS)
