{"id":1918,"date":"2026-02-11T15:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:50:15","slug":"indias-oil-minister-denies-wrongdoing-in-epstein-links-says-met-him-3-or-maximum-4-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1918","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s oil minister denies wrongdoing in Epstein links, says met him \u20183 or maximum 4 times\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/02\/11204401b89c67c.webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s oil minister said on Wednesday he had communicated with and met the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his time in the United States, but said he had no connection to any wrongdoings or crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Hardeep Singh Puri, a career diplomat-turned-politician, said he was part of the International Peace Institute, a New York think tank headed by Norwegian diplomat and former cabinet minister Terje Roed-Larsen until 2020, and met Epstein \u201cthree or maximum four times\u201d during his time there.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left  media--embed  media--uneven media--tweet\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ndtv\/status\/2021602067761209646\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--twitter  \"><span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ndtv\/status\/2021602067761209646\"><\/a>\n    <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Roed-Larsen, 78, has apologised for his connection to Epstein and his wife, Mona Juul, a Norwegian ambassador, stepped down over her links to Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>Puri\u2019s comments came in response to questions by India\u2019s opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in parliament on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Gandhi said Puri\u2019s name had been mentioned in Epstein\u2019s emails and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government to clarify what his dealings with Epstein were.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full sm:w-1\/2  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1970527\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--newskitlink  \">    <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Puri, who served as India\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations from 2009-2013, became a minister in Modi\u2019s cabinet in 2017. He denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Documents released by the US Department of Justice show emails between Puri and Epstein, mostly referring to Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, who Puri said he wanted to invite to India so he could explore the country\u2019s potential for internet-based businesses.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1972547\/indias-oil-minister-denies-wrongdoing-in-epstein-links-says-met-him-3-or-maximum-4-times\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India\u2019s oil minister said on Wednesday he had communicated with and met the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his time in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertaonment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}