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Informist, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Wednesday said his interactions with the convicted paedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with the latter's criminal activities. Puri claimed he was "ambushed" into meeting the billionaire American financier in the first instance.

 

Puri, whose name has appeared in Epstein's emails, records of which have been released by the US Department of Justice, said he had only "three or four meetings in eight years" with Epstein. "I never went to Epstein's island," Puri told a press conference here. "He was a very prominent member of the New York society. Half the world that interacted with him had no clue of his past."

 

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.

 

Puri said he was in New York for eight years, beginning 2009, when he was appointed India's Permanent Representative to the UN, till 2017, when he was appointed a Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government. "After I retired in 2013, I was invited to join the International Peace Institute where I served as the secretary general of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism. My boss was Terje Roed-Larsen. (He) was the one who knew this particular infamous person, Mr Epstein," Puri said.

 

"The first time I met him, I was ambushed. My boss Roed-Larsen told me that he wanted to take me and others to a dinner. He said he won't tell me the address because if he did, I may not go there," Puri said.

 

"It was as part of the delegation of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism that I met Mr Epstein on a few occasions. In 2008, he pleaded guilty, yes. Rest of the stories were known much later. That is why people like us left," he added.

 

Puri said he had already shared a note regarding this with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in November. Gandhi Wednesday raised in the Lok Sabha the issue of Puri's name featuring in Epstein's emails, and alleged that India struck an unequal trade deal with the US under some pressure.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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