India, Feb. 12 -- Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday issued a detailed clarification on Opposition allegations linking him to the Epstein Files, saying his name was being wrongly dragged into the matter.Puri claimed that he had met the American financier Jeffrey Epstein "three or four times" in a professional capacity as part of a delegation, and exchanged one email with him. The minister also clarified that his interactions with Epstein were as part of an International Peace Institute (IPI) delegation.

"Three million emails have been released, covering the period from May 2009, when I joined as India's Ambassador to the UN in New York, until I became a minister in 2017," he said. During this per...