• Source:JND

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri’s daughter, Himayani Puri, filed a defamation case in the Delhi High Court, alleging that several online posts have falsely claimed that she had a financial or network association with Epstein or his criminal activities. Puri urged the court to remove online content linking her to convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

In her legal documents, Puri requested that the court order the defendants, including Google, X, Meta, and LinkedIn, to remove all of their defamatory articles when they become aware of them. Puri has also sought Rs 10 crore in damages and a permanent injunction against several social media entities, with the defamation suit likely to be taken up for hearing tomorrow.

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The suit alleges that defamatory and misleading texts first appeared on the internet on or around February 22, 2026. Such texts purportedly state that Puri has direct and/or indirect business, financial, personal, or other networks with Epstein and his activities.

For example, the allegations made against Real Partners LLC, where Puri worked previously, were allegedly due to Epstein and his associates providing funding or financial incentives to the company. Several articles also alleged that Robert Millard and Puri conspired to engineer the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The lawsuit states that these allegations are all "false", "bots" (malicious), and "no evidence of any grounds" and were made for the purpose of generating "public outrage", "virality", and therefore, damaging his reputation.

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The recent controversy surrounding Epstein came after a renewed focus on the events surrounding him, following the release of thousands of emails and photos from the US Government (referred to as the "Epstein Files"). These emails show exchanges between Epstein and many other dignitaries around the world.

Hardeep Singh Puri had previously come under criticism in India for his email communications with Epstein in 2014 and 2015. In an NDTV interview, he indicated that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal actions at the time and also denied any suggestion of involvement with him.


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