Former Acting Deputy Director of the National Hospital of Colombo, Dr. Rukshan Bellana has left the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) a short while ago after recording a statement, Ada Derana reporter said.

He appeared before the CID this morning (27) following a notice requesting a statement from him regarding an incident involving a death threat.

Recently, the Ministry of Health suspended Dr. Bellana from his duties as Acting Deputy Director of the National Hospital of Colombo.

The decision followed preliminary investigations, which alleged that, as a government medical officer holding a responsible position, he had acted in a manner that created a controversial situation and caused public unrest by making unauthorized statements to the media.

The Anuradhapura Magistrate’s Court has rejected a request made by a former army soldier, who is a suspect in a sexual assault case involving a female specialist doctor undergoing training at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital, seeking permission to make another statement in court.

According to the Ada Derana court reporter, the request was made during the hearing of the case before Anuradhapura Chief Magistrate Nalaka Sanjeewa Jayasuriya.

Responding to the suspect’s request, the Sub Inspector of Police (SI) of the Child and Women’s Bureau of the Anuradhapura Police A.C. Dayananda informed the Magistrate that the suspect was attempting to use the court to make various false statements in a deliberate effort to defame and distress the victimized doctor.

Police further stated that the suspect was intentionally trying to spread these false claims through media to cause emotional harm to the doctor.

Previously, the suspect made a false statement in open court, claiming that the sexual act was not committed by force, according to police.

The Sub Inspector of the Child and Women’s Bureau of the Anuradhapura Police requested court not to allow such malicious and false statements, which waste the court’s time and are made with ill intent.

The court also ordered police to send the smartphone belonging to the doctor—which was recovered by police while the suspect had allegedly hidden it after abducting her—to the government forensic examiner and submit the related forensic report to court.

The former Army soldier, who is currently in remand custody over the incident, has been further remanded until July 29.

Earlier, the Anuradhapura Police had been instructed to present the suspect for a DNA test and submit the medical report to court.

In a further report to court, police indicated that investigations into the crime are still ongoing.

The suspect, a former Army soldier residing in the Galnewa new town, had previously been presented for an identification parade, during which the victimized doctor successfully identified him.

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has announced that steps are underway to initiate job opportunities under the E-8 visa category for seasonal employment in South Korea.

Chairman of the bureau, Kosala Wickramasinghe, stated that the proposal for this initiative has already been submitted for Cabinet approval. 

Upon receiving the necessary approval, Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) will be signed with relevant South Korean authorities, following which eligible workers will be deployed.

He further noted that arrangements are currently in progress to sign MoUs with four South Korean provincial administrations, and expressed confidence that these agreements will be finalized by the 10th of this month.

“We expect to send the first group of workers to South Korea under the E-8 visa category by the end of July. We are preparing to sign MoUs with four states in South Korea for this purpose. Under this program, we aim to send the maximum number of workers permitted annually for seasonal employment,” Wickramasinghe said.

He emphasized that recruitment under this initiative will be carried out solely by the government and that the private sector will not be permitted to engage in the recruitment process.

Wickramasinghe also addressed misinformation circulating on social media, both in Sri Lanka and South Korea, regarding the program. He clarified that the initiative has not been abandoned.

“Certain individuals are spreading false information, claiming that the government has discontinued this employment program. We responsibly state that it has not been stopped. It has only been temporarily suspended to establish an appropriate legal framework. We will formalize it by obtaining Cabinet approval and signing the MoU,” he explained.

He stressed that recruitment will be conducted in a transparent manner, strictly based on qualifications. He urged the public not to pay money to any intermediaries or unauthorized agents.

Additionally, efforts will be made to make the recruitment and all information public in the future, he added.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei claimed victory over Israel on Thursday in his first public statement since a ceasefire was declared in the war between the two countries.

Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since taking shelter in a secret location after the outbreak of the war June 13 when Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists.

Following a massive American attack on June 22 that hit the nuclear sites with bunker-buster bombs, U.S. President Donald Trump was able to help negotiate a ceasefire that came into effect on Tuesday.

Khameni did release a video message on June 19 during the war, and Iranian state television and the supreme leader’s own social media pages announced that he would be releasing another video message to Iran on Thursday.

In his first comment posted on X, he offered his “congratulations on the victory” over Israel.

Leader of ‘Pivithuru Hela Urumaya’ Udaya Gammanpila alleges that US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung has omitted certain words and edited the statement issued by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the sanctions imposed by the UK government on former military chiefs.

Commenting regarding the matter, Gammanpila said: “We think that Minister Vijitha Herath wrote the statement engulfed in patriotic thoughts but US Ambassador Julie Chung who has power over the government must have omitted certain words and edited the statement.”

“The Canadian Tamil Congress that congratulated President Anura Dissanayake when he rose to power sent a congratulatory letter to the president urging him to fulfill his duties, stating that they have completed theirs”, Gammanpila stated, questioning the government on what these responsibilities which they have promised to the Canadian Tamil congress.

“It has not been revealed to country as yet. We have to assume that the government is fulfilling their duties to the Canadian Tamil congress when the government is responding lackadaisically to the Britain’s hunt against military personnel”, he noted.

Bitcoin, the leading crypto asset by market capitalization, shot up 7% from Thursday’s trough below $59,000 after the hotter U.S. CPI inflation report, bucking this week’s trend of giving up gains during the U.S. trading hours. Recently, BTC was up 5.5% over the past 24 hours, outperforming the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index’s (CD20) 4.7% advance.

American investment company WisdomTree has requested to withdraw its Ethereum Trust registration statement three years after submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This development comes a few hours after fellow asset manager VanEck closed down its Ethereum futures ETF citing a lack of demand.

WisdomTree To Terminate Ethereum ETF Registration 

In a filing on September 6, WisdomTree approached the SEC to retract the S-1 registration form of the exchange-traded fund known as “WisdomTree Ethereum Trust”. The American asset manager first filed this registration statement on May 27, 2021, seeking to launch an ETF that offered investors exposure to Ethereum but with lower costs and fewer liabilities. 

A statement from the application read:

In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the Trust will hold ether and will value its Shares daily based on the [CF Ether-Dollar US Settlement Price], which is an independently calculated value based on an aggregation of executed trade flow of major ether spot exchanges.”

The “WisdomTree Ethereum Trust” was to be traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) with the proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $1,000,000. 

Three years later, WisdomTree has moved to withdraw the registration statement of this ETF alongside all relevant exhibits. The asset manager states that no securities in relation to the said application have been/will be sold to investors. In addition, WisdomTree has acknowledged that the filing fees for this registration statement, valued at $109.10, cannot be refunded. They have also requested that these fees be directed toward future use. 

As earlier stated, WisdomTree’s announcement comes shortly after VanEck unveiled plans to shut down its VanEck Ethereum Strategy ETF (EFUT), an investment fund based on Ethereum futures contracts. According to VanEck, this decision is based on an analysis of several factors including “performance, liquidity, assets under management, and investor interest”.  Trading activity on EFUT will come to a halt on September 16, followed by shares liquidation on or about September 23.

ETH Spot ETF Market Sees $6 Million In Loss

In other news, the Ethereum spot ETF market had recorded an outflow of $6 million in the last day according to data from Farside Investors. The total cumulative net flows of the nascent market now stand at -$568.5 million despite holding over 2% of the Ethereum market. Meanwhile, data from CoinMarketCap shows Ethereum trades at $2,237 following a 6.64% decline in the last day. 

Featured image from Markets Insider, chart from Tradingview

Businessman Anil Ambani is reviewing a Sebi order imposing a fine and banning him from capital markets for five years in an alleged fund diversion case and will take appropriate next steps as legally advised, his spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday. Ambani, the spokesperson in a statement said, had resigned from the board of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Power Ltd, pursuant to Sebi’s interim order dated February 11, 2022 in the matter pertaining to Reliance Home Finance Ltd.

He “is in compliance with the said interim order (of February 11, 2022) for the last two and half years,” the statement said.

On the August 22 order that banned him and 24 others from the securities market for five years on charges of diversion of funds, the spokesperson said, “Mr Ambani is reviewing the final order dated August 22, 2024 passed by Sebi in the said matter, and will take appropriate next steps as legally advised.”

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had also imposed a fine of Rs 25 crore on Ambani, saying he orchestrated a scheme to “siphon off” funds from Reliance Home Finance, a listed subsidiary of conglomerate Reliance Group of which he is chairman.

The ban means that he and the other 24 will not be able to access the securities market and are prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly. In a separate statement, Mumbai-listed Reliance Infrastructure Ltd said it “was not a noticee or party to the proceedings before Sebi in which the order is passed. No directions are given in the order against Reliance Infrastructure Ltd”. “Mr Ambani had resigned from the board of directors of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd pursuant to the interim order dated February 11, 2022 passed by Sebi in the same proceedings. Therefore, the order dated August 22, 2024 passed by Sebi has no bearing whatsoever on the business and affairs of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd,” it said. Reliance Power, the other listed company of Anil Ambani’s group, also issued a similar statement saying Ambani had resigned in 2022 and that the latest Sebi order has no bearing on it.

Sebi in the August 22 order had stated that a “fraudulent” scheme “siphoned off” funds from Reliance Home Finance, which provides loans for housing and construction, by structuring them as loans to credit-unworthy borrowers.

Most of these borrowers were linked to “promoters”, the regulator had said.

Anil Ambani and his elder brother Mukesh had in July 2006 split their father Dhirubhai Ambani-created Reliance Industries Ltd. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group spanned financial services, infrastructure and telecommunications while the elder brother got the traditional oil refining and petrochemicals business.

Over the last few years, Anil Ambani has seen three of the largest firms within the group, including Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, and Reliance Infrastructure, undergoing bankruptcy over unpaid debt.

Sebi has charged that more than Rs 9,000 crore worth of loans from Reliance Home Finance were made to “nondescript borrowers who had no demonstrable financial ability to repay any of it”.

The other 24 banned include executives of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group and other unlisted companies connected to him.