Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday, 11 February, denied allegations of any wrongdoing, over a week after his interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light. Puri insisted that he met Epstein only “on a few occasions” and “as part of a delegation”.
"After I resigned as India's ambassador to the UN, I was invited to join the International Peace Institute (IPI) a few months later,” Puri said. “My boss in the IPI, Terje Rod-Larsen, was the person who knew this particular infamous person Mr Epstein, and it is as part of a delegation of the IPI that I met Mr Epstein on a few occasions, three or maximum four," he added.
Puri said that their interactions were professional in nature, and had nothing to do with Epstein’s criminal activities at his island.
“In the eight years, there is one email I exchanged with him,” Puri said. However, later in the press conference, Puri added that there was only “one substantive email” and there were “one or two others”, but did not expand on them.
The emails released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), however, suggest that Puri interacted with and met Epstein multiple times. Puri said he met Epstein because he was “a very prominent member of New York society.” “Half the world that interacted with him had no clue about his past,” Puri said.
It should be noted that Epstein was already a convicted sex offender during the period of these meetings. He had been arrested for soliciting a child in 2008, and served 13 months in prison. He was re-arrested in 2019 after more charges came to light.
“In 2008, he pled guilty for a charge, a charge that he was soliciting the favors of a woman who was underage. That was it. Rest of these stories came out much later,” Puri said at the press conference.
Puri’s Series of Interactions and Meetings with Epstein
In June 2014, a month after Narendra Modi first become Prime Minister, Epstein hosted a gathering at his New York residence with former Israel PM Ehud Barak, Hardeep Singh Puri, and a few others. The email shows Epstein listing out his select guest list to Larry Summers, the former US Secretary of the Treasury and Harvard president, asking him to join. This was months after Puri had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and one month after the party came to power.
Weeks later, Puri informed Epstein that he would be “happy to assist/facilitate Reid Hoffman's visit” to India. Hoffman is the co-founder of Linkedin.
Then, in October that year, Puri told Epstein that he was meeting Hoffman in San Francisco. While he did acknowledge his meeting with Hoffman, Puri did not address that an email shows him asking Epstein for advice for the meeting. “You, my friend, make things happen. Any advice?”
Epstein responded to this email with guidance on how Puri should pitch to Hoffman and offer to organise a trip to India and make introductions across industries.
The same month, Epstein wrote to Puri asking for a personal favour. “my asst needs a quick visa so she can attend a wedding in india, is there someone at the consulate she can talk to?”
In response, Puri marked ambassador Pramod Bajaj to the email, “on a priority basis”. Puri also told Epstein that Bajaj “who now works with me will organise this.”
Puri defended this at the press conference, by saying that he merely connected him to someone else who asked him to apply online. “Is this called doing a favour?,” Puri asked in the press conference.
In November, Puri sent a lengthy email to Epstein and Hoffman detailing India’s economic plans under Modi. “I am now convinced more than ever that India today presents a terrific opportunity for internet-based economic activity,” Puri wrote in an email, that he quoted from in the press conference. This is the “one substantial email” that Puri referred to at the press conference.
However, what Puri did not address was that in December the same year, he wrote to Epstein again, this time also referencing his island. “Please let me know when you are back from your exotic island,” Puri wrote, adding that he wanted to stop by with books to “excite an interest in India.”
The two scheduled to meet again at his residence in January 2016.
There are multiple emails showing either Epstein or Puri asking each other for meetings. For example, in January 2017, Puri wrote to Epstein, “If you are in town, I want to drop by to give you a copy of my book, Perilous Interventions.”
He then requested a meeting in May 2017 as well. Epstein’s assistant shares his address with Puri and asks him if he is coming over. Puri responds saying he will be there by 11 am. Puri requested another meeting for him to “drop by for a chat” in June that year.
These emails suggest one-on-one interactions, as per the emails. The Quint reached out to Puri for a response but hasn’t received one yet.
Notably, Terje Rod-Larsen, the then chief of IPI who Puri mentions as the mutual contact through which he met Epstein, had resigned from the post in 2020 after the full extent of their ties became known. After the most recent tranche of files released by the DoJ, his wife, Norwegian ambassador Mona Juul, has also resigned following reports of Epstein having left millions of dollars to the couple and their children in his will before his death in 2019.
(Fatima Khan is a New York-based journalist. With over six years of experience as a roving reporter in India, she has covered national politics, hate crimes, gender, and social justice with a sharp investigative lens.)