India on Saturday firmly rejected references to the Prime Minister found in the latest set of investigative files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein released by US authorities, describing them as “little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal.”
In a brief statement issued to “clarify certain reports,” External Affairs Ministry (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the government had taken note of media reports citing an email from the so-called Epstein files that mentioned the Prime Minister and his official visit to Israel.
“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,” Jaiswal said.
Opposition Seeks Clarification
The government’s clarification came after Congress leader Pawan Khera raised the issue on social media, calling it a “national shame” that Jeffrey Epstein — a convicted child sex offender and serial rapist — had written about the Prime Minister in an email. Khera also demanded an explanation from the government regarding the reference.
What the Epstein Files Contain
The reference in question appears in an email sent by Epstein in 2017 to an individual described as a senior official in Qatar. Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The email is part of a massive tranche of investigative material related to Epstein, released by the US Department of Justice on Friday. The files reportedly include 3.5 million pages of documents and around 2,000 videos, made public following a law passed by the US Congress mandating greater transparency in the case.
Indian authorities have stressed that apart from the publicly known fact of the Prime Minister’s official visit to Israel in 2017, the claims contained in the email have no credibility and should not be given any weight.