ED questions Anil Ambani in fresh FEMA case
Mumbai, Jul 3: Reliance ADA Group Chairman Anil Ambani on Monday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here and recorded his statement in connection with an investigation linked to the alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, official sources said.
Ambani, 64, deposed at the office of the federal agency in south Mumbai where he arrived at around 10 am.
Ambani's statement was recorded as part of a fresh case filed under various sections of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the sources said without elaborating.
He came out of the ED office at around 6 pm.
The industrialist had appeared before the ED in 2020 in a money laundering case against Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor and others.
In August last year, the income-tax department issued a notice to Ambani under the anti-black money law for allegedly evading Rs 420 crore in taxes on undisclosed funds of more than Rs 814 crore held in two Swiss bank accounts.
The Bombay High Court, in March, ordered an interim stay on this I-T show-cause notice and penalty demand.
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WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak in Congo, Uganda
Abuja (Nigeria) (AP): WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the Ebola disease outbreak in Congo and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.
In a post on X, the World Health Organisation said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, and advised against the closure of international borders.
Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen. The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.
Health authorities have confirmed the current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been reported.
Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in neighbouring Uganda, the WHO said.
Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Congo's eastern province of Ituri, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday. On Saturday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 336 suspected cases and 87 deaths.
“There are significant uncertainties regarding the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,” Tedros said.
Uganda on Saturday confirmed one case it said was imported from Congo, and said the patient died at a hospital in Uganda's capital, Kampala, and the WHO said that a second case has been reported in Kampala. The two cases had no apparent links to each other, and both patients had travelled from Congo, it added.
The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda's Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people. The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.
WHO's emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action. However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.
In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies like diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.
