India, Feb. 11 -- Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday strongly rejected allegations made by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi regarding references to his name in the recently released "Epstein Files", saying his interactions with the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein were limited, official, and unrelated to any criminal activity.

Speaking to reporters hours after Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in Parliament, Puri said he had met Epstein only "on a few occasions as part of a delegation" and had exchanged just one email with him.

Puri added that his primary engagement at the time was with LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, whom he had invited to India.

He also claimed that he had "no interest in Epstein's activitie...