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New Delhi: Himayani Puri, the daughter of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, filed a defamation suit before the Delhi High Court on Monday, March 16, seeking removal of online content linking her to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and has claimed Rs 10 crore in damages.

The suit is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday, March 17.

According to the suit, starting February 22, several social media entities began making allegations that Himayani Puri had direct or indirect business, financial, personal or other associations with Epstein and his criminal activities. 

She also alleged that Real Partners LLC, where she was employed, received funding or tainted money from Epstein or his associates, and that one Robert Millard allegedly acted in concert with her to engineer the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Puri has categorically denied all the allegations, calling them “entirely false, malicious, and devoid of any factual foundation.”

The suit contends that the allegations were “strategically propagated through sensationalist and manipulative formats, including edited videos, misleading captions, and doctored thumbnails, designed to maximise public outrage, digital virality, and consequent reputational harm.”

It further alleges that she is being targeted “in a coordinated and motivated manner with the clear intention of maligning and discrediting her, both in India and on a global scale,” and that the campaign is directed at her solely because she is the daughter of a senior Cabinet minister.

Apart from the Rs 10 crore damages, Puri has sought a permanent injunction against several social media entities and unknown persons, and the removal of all defamatory content published across online platforms worldwide.She has also sought a direction to social media intermediaries – X, Google, Meta and LinkedIn – that when she brings similar defamatory content to their notice in the future, they must take it down promptly.