Photos of Hardeep Singh Puri with Jeffrey Epstein go viral months after release in US Justice Department files

Photographs showing Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri seated across a table from Jeffrey Epstein began circulating widely on social media on Tuesday, October 20, months after the US Department of Justice made them public. According to The Wire, the images are part of the department’s Epstein files and were included in Dataset 9, released in January 2026.

Appearing in a photograph or a document from the Epstein files is not, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor, was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges in July 2019 and died in custody the following month while awaiting trial, The Wire noted.

The photograph shows Puri, in a suit, sitting opposite Epstein in armchairs, with papers and other items on the table between them and no one else visible in the frame, The Wire reported. It said it had found at least 10 nearly identical photos of the meeting in the dataset. The Press Trust of India described the image being shared as undated.

The pictures drew attention because of what Puri said earlier this year. At a press conference on February 11, he said he had met Epstein “three or maximum four” times, through a delegation linked to the International Peace Institute (IPI), where he then worked. “My boss in the IPI, Mr Terje Rod-Larsen, was a person who knew this particular infamous person, Mr Epstein, and it is as part of a delegation of the IPI or the ICM that I met Mr Epstein on a few occasions – three or maximum four,” Puri said then, according to The Wire. Emails released by the Justice Department earlier this year record at least three meetings at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, in February 2015, January 2016 and May 2017, The Wire has reported.

Responding to questions from The Wire, Puri’s office said he could not recall which meeting the photographs showed, and that he had never said he did not meet Epstein alone. “At his press conference in February, Mr Puri explained how he came to know Epstein. His then-boss at the International Peace Institute, Terje Rød-Larsen, a senior Norwegian diplomat, knew Epstein well. Mr Puri’s first meeting with Epstein was as part of an IPI delegation led by Mr Rød-Larsen. That is the context he was describing. He did not say he never met Epstein alone,” the statement said. “Nearly a decade on, Mr Puri cannot recall which meeting these photographs are from, or whether others were present before or after they were taken,” it added.

The office said the photographs supported Puri’s account. “Far from revealing anything new, the photographs bear out what he has consistently said: these were working meetings, held across a table with notes and papers, in a professional setting and attire,” it said. It repeated that Puri had never visited Epstein’s island, and said: “His emails also bear out what their interactions were about: generating interest in India’s economy and its digital potential among investors and technology leaders.” It added: “A very wide range of people across academia, science, business and politics met Epstein in those years. Having met him a few times in that context cannot lead to inference of any wrongdoing.”

Opposition leaders from the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) shared the photographs and questioned Puri’s earlier account, The Times of India and Deccan Herald reported. The Congress, which has sought his resignation since his name appeared in the files earlier this year, criticised the government on Wednesday, according to the Press Trust of India.

The office’s response to The Wire, published on October 21, is the only statement from Puri’s side reported so far. As of Thursday afternoon, October 22, The Indian Idiot found no further comment from Puri on his X account and no statement from the government on the photographs.