The government on Wednesday accused Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi of “perpetrating lies” about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and said it would move a breach of privilege notice against him.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who had asked Rahul to authenticate remarks made in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the Union Budget today, later dismissed the Congress leader’s charges against PM and Puri as “baseless”.Rijiju said Rahul breached rules of conduct by failing to give notices before levelling accusations against the PM and a minister. The government also urged the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha today to expunge Rahul’s un-authenticated remarks, including “PM sold the nation”.In a parallel move, Puri dismissed Congress charges of links with late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as “innuendos and smear” and said he had meagre interactions with the late financier, who once called him “two-faced”.Breaking the silence on Congress attacks in regard to his name figuring in Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice, Puri said he was introduced to Epstein by his boss Terje Roed-Larsen, president of the International Peace Institute (IPI).“I was in New York for eight years starting May 2009 when I was Ambassador of India to the UN until 2017 when I became minister. The files refer to three or four meetings (with Epstein) in eight years. After my UN stint, I was invited to be part of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism under the IPI headed by Larsen. Larsen knew Epstein and it was as part of IPI delegations that I met him on three to four occasions,” Puri said.He mentioned one email exchange with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman where he had copied Epstein. “I had been introduced to Hoffman and wrote to him, copy to Epstein advising them on Internet expansion in India, digital penetration and ‘Make in India’, basically promoting India as an investment destination. Epstein called me two-faced as I did not suit him. In another email, Larsen wrote – if you confront an Indian and a snake, kill the Indian first. This was my interaction,” Puri said, adding that he was once ambushed by Larsen into attending a dinner at Epstein’s home.“Larsen would not tell me where he was taking me and said I won’t go if told. I was ambushed,” Puri said.To a question on having interacted with Epstein even after the latter’s conviction in 2008, Puri said, “Epstein was a very prominent member of the New York society. Half the world that interacted with him had no clue to his past. You have to deal with people. I was once sent to negotiate with LTTE chief V Prabhakaran. Just because I met a terrorist doesn’t make me share his values,” Puri said, accusing Rahul of harbouring “elements of buffoonery”.Puri cited past actions of Rahul — “his move of tearing up an ordinance cleared by the late Manmohan Singh Cabinet in 2013; his remarks that India is a dead economy; claims that a Brazilian model voted in Indian elections” — to say that “Rahul had dialled a wrong number in his case”.