Opposition questions Puri over photos with Epstein

Opposition leaders have renewed pressure on Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri over photographs showing him with Jeffrey Epstein, questioning Puri’s account that their meetings took place through a professional delegation. The images circulated as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mumbai, prompting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to raise an unsubstantiated question about whether the timing was linked to U.S. pressure or blackmail. The photographs were part of material released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, according to reports. Their renewed circulation on social media prompted leaders from Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) to challenge Puri’s explanation and demand details about the encounters. The images, as described in the reports, do not establish whether other delegates were present or whether any meeting was private. Puri said in February that he met Epstein three or four times in a professional capacity after resigning as India’s ambassador to the United Nations and before joining the Union Cabinet in 2017. He said the meetings were connected to a delegation associated with the International...