&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "‘Trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal’: MEA rejects Epstein files claims")
New Delhi: India’s foreign ministry has dismissed references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recently released documents linked to the late US financier and convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein, describing them as baseless and contemptible.
The controversy erupted after batches of Epstein-related files, made public by the US Department of Justice under a 2025 transparency law, included an email Epstein wrote to someone while claiming influence over Indian affairs.
In response, India’s Ministry of External Affairs has issued a sharp rebuttal to the claims. In a post on X, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shared a statement, labelling the claims as “trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal” and saying that they “deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt”.
The statement emphasised that PM Modi’s 2017 Israel trip was a landmark state visit focused on strengthening bilateral ties in defence, technology, and agriculture, with no link to Epstein.
“Beyond the fact of the Prime Minister’s official visit to Israel in July 2017, the rest of the allusions in the email are little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal, which deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt,” the statement said.
In one 2017 long email message, Epstein wrote in a sentence that Indian Prime Minister Modi had taken his “advice” and “danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president”, adding “IT WORKED!”, apparently referring to the prime minister’s official visit to Israel in July that year.
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Other documents from 2019 show Epstein urging former Trump aide Steve Bannon to meet Mr Modi, claiming the Indian leader was “on board” with certain ideas and had discussed China and Pakistan as threats.
The releases, spanning millions of pages and spanning late 2025 into early 2026, have renewed global scrutiny of Epstein’s network of high-profile contacts.
Epstein frequently exaggerated about his connections to impress associates and others, and no documents released so far show direct meetings between him and Indian PM Modi or substantiate any wrongdoing.
