Claim: Image allegedly shows Sonia Gandhi shaking hands with sex offender Jeffery Epstein.
Conclusion: The claim is false. The image is AI-generated and there is no evidence that the depicted interaction ever took place. The Congress party also denied the claim saying that the post carried fabricarted images to target congress and mislead people.
Rating: False 
Several social media users have shared a picture of Sonia Gandhi shaking hands with Jeffery Epstein. X user ‘Bishwanath47225’ shared such a post with the caption (translated into English) : “Yesterday, when the photo of Jeffrey Epstein with Hardeep Puri surfaced, the entire ecosystem sprang into action. Today, as soon as this photo was released, the entire ecosystem went on the back foot.” The attached image allegedly shows Epstein shaking hands with Sonia Gandhi at a conference. View the post below –
कल जब हरदीप पुरी के साथ जेफरी एपस्टीन का फोटो आया तो पूरा इकोसिस्टम एक्टिव हो गया।
आज इस फोटो के जारी होते ही पूरा इकोसिस्टम बैकफुट पर आ गया।#SoniyaGandhi #Congress https://t.co/Fkt8B3H7Es
— Bishwanath Prasad #हर_हर_महादेव (@Bishwanath47225) October 23, 2026
The claim refers to a meeting between Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting that public attention has shifted away from the meeting following the release of a photograph of Sonia Gandhi.
FACT CHECK
DigitEYE India decided to investigate this claim and found it to be false. The image is AI-generated, and there is no credible evidence of the alleged interaction. Congress has also rejected the claim and no verified information substantiates it.
For context, a photograph released by the US Department of Justice shows Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri seated across a table from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Responding to the photograph, Puri’s office said he “cannot recall which meeting these photographs are from, or whether others were present before or after they were taken.” It maintained that the interactions were “working meetings” conducted in a “professional setting and attire.”
We first conducted a web search with the phrase “Sonia Gandhi meets Jeffery Epstein” to learn about their previous interaction. However, we did not come across any verified reports that suggests such an interaction. While Epstein has been publicly photographed with various high profile celebrities and politicians, no information about him meeting Sonia Gandhi exists.
Following this, we conducted a reverse image search on the image to learn more about it’s origin. The search took us to an another claim by Facebook user ‘Hukamsingh Suner Rajput’ on 23 October, 2026. According to a TOI report on 27 October, 2026, Congress secretary Abhishek Dutt filed a police complaint over fake images of Jeffery Epstein shaking hands with Sonia Gandhi shared by users on X.
While the above TOI report did not showcase this exact picture, there is a high probability it is the same image. Dutt “sought legal action under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita” and said that such claims “must not go unchallenged.” Therefore, the Congress party itself has denied any such claims, view a screenshot from the report below –
Lastly, we downloaded the image shared in the claim and ran it through Hive Moderation’s AI detector to check its authenticity. The results proved that this image was indeed generated using AI and is not real. View a screenshot of the result below –
Thus, the claim is false.
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