Trashy ruminations: MEA on PM’s Israel trip mention in Epstein Files

NEW DELHI: India on Saturday dismissed a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the latest investigative files related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein released by US authorities, describing it as "little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal".

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the government had seen "reports of an email message from the so-called Epstein files" that contained a "reference to the Prime Minister and his 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.

The reference was made in an email that Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019, had sent in 2017 to a person who was apparently a senior official in Qatar. The email was part of investigative files related to Epstein, containing 3.5 million pages and 2,000 videos, released by the US justice department on Friday in response to a law passed by the US Congress.