Delhi

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) Exit polls for the Delhi assembly election on Saturday predicted a big victory for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party with some indicating that it can even repeat its 2015 landslide when it had bagged 67 seats in the 70-member House.

The India Today-Axis poll forecast 59-68 seats for the AAP and 2-11 for the BJP, while the ABP-CVoter put the Delhi's ruling party's tally at anywhere between 49 and 63 and that of its main rival between five to 19.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 57.06 pc till 6 pm, even as polling at some booths was underway and the figure is likely to rise, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh said on Saturday.

Polling officially ends at 6 pm. But voters, who enter polling stations till 6 pm, are allowed to cast their vote.

Singh said there were long queues at many polling booths.

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) Former Union Minister M J Akbar told a Delhi court Friday that scribe Priya Ramani's accusations of sexual misconduct against him in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018 were "figment of her imagination" and caused him "great humiliation" and "irreparably damaged his reputation".

London, Feb 7 (PTI) A UK court on Friday directed Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani to pay USD 100 million towards a conditional order granted to three Chinese banks pursuing the recovery of over USD 680 million owed to them as part of a loan agreement.

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) There is a need to improve the collegium system of appointment of judges, former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri said on Friday while stressing on the requirement of judicial reforms in the country.

Justice Sikri, who is currently international judge of the Singapore international commercial court, said that around 30 million cases are pending in courts across the country and the executive and the judiciary are equally responsible for delay in appointments of judges.

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed a host of issues.

Rajapaksa was the Sri Lankan president from 2005-2015, while Singh was the prime minister from 2004-14.

Gandhi and Singh were accompanied by senior Congress leader Anand Sharma during the meeting with Rajapaksa, who arrived here this evening on a five-day visit.

After his official engagement in Delhi, Rajapaksa will travel to Varanasi, Sarnath, Bodh Gaya and Tirupati.

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa covering the entire expanse of bilateral ties between the two countries including in areas of defence and security.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, elder brother of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, arrived here on Friday on a five-day visit, his first overseas tour after being appointed as prime minister of the island nation in November last year.

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) The Supreme Court said it would hear the pleas against anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh next week as it did not want to "influence" the Delhi assembly elections by hearing the matter on Friday.

Polls in the national capital will be held on Saturday and the matter will now be heard on Monday.

New Delhi, Feb 7 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the government for invoking the Public Safety Act against former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and said detention without charges is the worst abomination in a democracy.

Mufti and Abdullah, besides two political stalwarts from the PDP and its arch-rival National Conference, were booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the administration on Thursday, officials in the union territory said.

New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) The CBI on Thursday arrested a Delhi government officer understood to be the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in an alleged bribery case of Rs 2 lakh, officials said.

Gopal Krishna Madhav was arrested in a late night operation for allegedly receiving a bribe of over Rs 2 lakh in a matter related to GST, they said.

Madhav was immediately taken to the CBI Headquarters for questioning, the officials said.