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Informist, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Indian National Congress Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi not asking his Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri--whose name has appeared in disgraced American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's emails--to resign from the Union Cabinet gives rise to suspicion. Spokesperson Pawan Khera dismissed the arguments offered by Puri in his own defence at a press conference Wednesday as "lies".

 

The opposition party demanded to know in what capacity Puri was dealing with Epstein, a convicted sex offender, child rapist, and human trafficker, between 2014 and 2017, and why he was sharing details of the Digital India programme with him before it was officially launched in India.

 

"The man (Puri) should have resigned on his own," Khera said at a press conference here. "And if the prime minister doesn't ask him to resign, it will only arouse more suspicion that there is something fishy, something which even Mr Modi is afraid of."

 

Khera wondered why anybody would do any kind of business with a convicted human trafficker. "You have a ministry of external affairs, an ambassador in the US, other officials... why do you need Hardeep Puri, an ex-diplomat, for any kind of communication channel? Why would you need somebody to interact with a sex offender?" he said.

 

Khera said either Puri was acting "on behalf of someone in Delhi", talking about Digital India much before the programme was launched in India, or "Epstein was conveying the wish list of America to Mr Modi through Hardeep Puri". He said, "In what capacity was Puri being used by the government between 2014 and 2017, before he became a minister? Under whose authority was he interacting and dealing with Jeffrey Epstein?"

 

He said those who have any kind of connection with a child rapist like Epstein, who "use them or get used by them", cannot be trusted with governance in India. "Your trade deal (with the US) is an example, your foreign policy surrender is an example that we are not in safe hands," the Congress spokesperson said.

 

Khera said there should have been outrage in the country against ministers dealing with convicted sex offenders, but everybody is silent because they fear a backlash from the government. "Such is the terror of this government that people are silent and the media is not asking questions on such a serious issue," he said.

 

Puri, whose name has appeared in Epstein's emails, records of which have been released by the US Department of Justice, has said he met Epstein only "three or four times" and never went to his infamous island.

 

Epstein was convicted in 2008 by a Florida court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute after he pleaded guilty to the crimes. He was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on charges of sex trafficking of minors and died in prison on Aug. 10 that year. End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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