Epstein files: The Indian names and the bigger story | LME 115 | Pooja Prasanna

Three million pages. Two hundred thousand images. Thousands of videos.

That’s what has just been made public in the Jeffrey Epstein case.

And inside it, the story of a powerful man who abused young girls for decades, shielded by money, and a system that looked away.

But this is no longer just about Jeffrey Epstein.

It is about the people who moved around him.

Politicians. Billionaires. Royalty. Celebrities. Global power networks.

And yes, names connected to India as well.

But before we get into Indian names, Indian power, and Indian politics, there is something that needs to be said clearly and upfront.

This story is not about a powerful man and his friends

It is about survivors

The girls who were abused.

The women who spoke up.

And about the institutions that failed them.

Let me explain.

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Now, what exactly are the Epstein files?

Jeffrey Epstein was a wealthy American financier who died by suicide in jail while he was on trial on sex trafficking charges. 

The files are a vast collection of investigation records, court documents, emails and grand jury material gathered over years. 

In late 2025, under political pressure, the US Congress forced their release.

So why do India and Indians appear in the Epstein files?

Not because India was central to Epstein’s abuse network, but because Epstein functioned as something else too — a fixer, a connector, a man who traded in access. And Indian power, like power everywhere, sometimes intersected with that role.

The most significant Indian name in the documents is Anil Ambani.

The files show that Epstein and Anil Ambani were in regular contact between 2017 and 2019, 

Remember Epstein was convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor, he was registered a sex offender and this got international coverage.

So most people who were in contact with Epstein after 2008, clearly knew who he was and what he was capable of doing. 

So what did Anil Ambani and Epstein discuss?

Ambani sought Epstein’s help in expanding his defence business. For instance, he wanted Epstein to link him with former Israeli PM Ehud Barak.

When Anil Ambani faced an insolvency ruling in 2019, he sought Epstein’s advice on how to raise a personal loan of USD 750 million. 

Months after Trump became president in 2017, Anil Ambani wanted Epstein’s help to reach Trump's team.

Later, Ambani wanted Epstein to put pressure and ensure David Petraeus, a retired general of the US army, becomes America’s ambassador to India.

Though these two men talked about it a lot, Petraeus did not become the Ambassador. 

In March 2017, Ambani claimed Delhi leadership wanted help to meet Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, a far-right ideologue. 

He also claimed ‘leadership’ wanted assistance for a Modi visit to Washington D.C.

Now, did Anil Ambani have any authorisation from the Modi government to make such requests? That is not established through these emails or messages. 

What is clear is that Ambani positioned himself as a backchannel and Epstein referred to Ambani as ‘Modi’s man’. 

Epstein also spoke about PM Modi’s visit to Israel.

In the first week of July, Narendra Modi visited Israel, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to do so.

In a correspondence with someone named Jabor Y, Epstein wrote that Modi danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president.  He claimed that Trump's strategy had worked. 

The Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed these emails, calling them trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal.

Emails also show Epstein using sexualised language in conversations with Ambani and inviting Ambani to his island.

There is no evidence, however, of Anil Ambani making such a visit. 

All of this actually points to an uncomfortable truth. That Epstein remained socially useful long after his conviction, and that his worldview, including casual objectification of women, spilled into elite networking.

Other Indian names appear too. 

One of the most discussed names is Hardeep Singh Puri, now India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Emails show multiple exchanges between Epstein and Puri beginning in 2014, again well after Epstein’s 2008 conviction as a sex offender.

In June 2014, Epstein introduced Puri to LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, describing Puri as “your man in India”. 

Puri was a retired diplomat then and a BJP member. 

Puri and Hoffman met at Silicon Valley and later Puri sent a detailed email in November 2014, to both Epstein and Hoffman about investment opportunities in India’s internet sector.

The documents show Puri met Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse at least thrice.

In December 2014, Puri wrote to Epstein asking when he would return from his “exotic island". 

When The Wire asked Puri why he used the word exotic, he said he may merely have repeated an adjective someone else used. 

Little St James in the US Virgin Islands is the property most closely tied to Epstein. A number of the allegations against him relate to incidents that allegedly happened on this island.

Puri has told the media that his interactions with Epstein were strictly professional and related to economic outreach.

Again, here is the uncomfortable layer. These meetings did happen years after Epstein had already pleaded guilty and registered as a sex offender.

Puri also doubled down at a press conference later, attempting to minimise Epstein’s 2008 conviction. 

“That was it,” the Union Minister is saying, essentially reducing a conviction for abusing a child to a vague description of “soliciting the favours of an underage woman.”

It reveals how he views the crime itself — as something small enough to be brushed aside, rather than a serious act of child sexual abuse.

Another Indian name that has drawn attention is businessman and investor Ravi Mantha. 

Emails show him setting up meetings with Epstein and later following up in ways that suggest a desire to remain within Epstein’s circle.  

Mantha was the BJP’s advisor in 2014.

There is no evidence in the files of criminal conduct linked to him either. 

Then there is Indian-American author Deepak Chopra.

Thousands of documents reference his name. It is clear that Epstein and Chopra were close. Their conversations move into deeply uncomfortable territory — there is pseudoscientific language, sexualised banter, and objectification of women.

At one point- the man who peddles spirituality for a living says- “God is a construct. Cute girls are real” 

Of course, revolting conversation is not the same as evidence of trafficking or abuse.  

Chopra, on his part, has denied any involvement in any criminal or exploitative conduct.

Now what all these exchanges reveal, once again, is how these elite circles function. And in India, there is of course the question of how a large part of the media is not reporting any of this. 

There are a couple of other Indian names which appear in passing, including filmmaker Mira Nair.

Epstein says he attended a party at his associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s house in celebration of a movie. He says Mira Nair was there.

But, many AI-generated images of Mira, her son and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani with Epstein have been doing the rounds.

This is another problem the world is facing ever since the release of the Epstein files. 

Names have been magnified, distorted, and weaponised. AI-generated images have circulated. Associations have been exaggerated.  

This is how voyeurism operates. It does not wait for evidence, it feeds on attention.

And while that happens, survivors once again slip out of focus.

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse have been speaking for nearly thirty years. 

In the 1990s, Maria Farmer reported Epstein to the FBI, and nothing happened. In 2008, Epstein received a sweetheart deal, charged with solicitation rather than child sexual abuse or trafficking, and served just over a year.

Media coverage often sanitised what he had done, describing it as a prostitution case rather than naming it for what it was — abuse of girls.

By 2019, when Epstein was arrested again, survivors like Virginia Giuffre, Courtney Wild, and Jennifer Araoz came forward publicly. They were children when the abuse began. Epstein died by suicide in jail before trial, and justice was denied yet again.

Now, in 2026, the pattern repeats. The identities of survivors were exposed. They were retraumatised. And the Department of Justice says there are no grounds for further prosecutions.

And finally- why does this matter in India?

Because it reveals something deeply familiar. Informal power, backchannels, elite insulation, and plausible deniability. And because it forces us to examine not just who appears in these files, but how we consume them.

The Epstein files show how abuse survives inside systems, and how easily survivors are pushed aside once elite reputations enter the frame.

The scandal is not that powerful Indians appear in the Epstein files. The scandal is that Epstein could remain useful to power at all. And the cost of that usefulness was paid by children — then, and now.

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Produced by Megha Mukundan, Script by Lakshmi Priya, Camera by Ajay R, Graphics by Dharini Prabharan, Edit by Nikhil Sekhar ET