Following week-long protests by Staff Selection Commission (SSC) aspirants over leak of examination papers, the government has given in to the demands of an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This comes a day after the SSC, which conducts the examination, recommended a CBI investigation into the alleged paper leaks in one of its tests held on February 21.


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Confirming the same, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, "We have accepted demands of protesting candidates and have given orders for CBI inquiry, protest should now stop." Notably, the Supreme Court had decided to take a call on the issue on March 12.


Though the students welcomed the statement of the Home Minister, they said that the protests won't be called off "until a proper format is released". One of the protesting aspirants said, "We welcome Union Home minister Rajnath Singh's decision on CBI probe in alleged SSC exams scam. We are not going to call off the protest until a proper format is released, we will see if our demands are being met or not."


In a statement, SSC chairman Ashim Khurana had said that a delegation of candidates, who were protesting against the alleged paper leaks, met him along with Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Manoj Tiwari and handed over a memorandum, following which the CBI probe was recommended.


They pressed for a CBI enquiry into the allegations of leaking of the SSC question papers of the Combined Graduate Level (Tier-II) Examination 2017 held from February 17 to 22.
"The commission agreed to recommend to the Department of Personnel and Training to request the government to conduct a CBI enquiry into the allegations of leaking of question papers of Paper-I on February 21, and other related issues," the statement had said.


Earlier, Tiwari, along with the protesting students, met Rajnath Singh and apprised him about the concerns raised by the protesting SSC aspirants.


Speaking to reporters later, Tiwari said that he had met Rajnath Singh along with protesting SSC aspirants during which their demand for a CBI probe into the SSC paper leak was accepted. "The Home Minister heard the students and assured action in this regard," he said.


Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare also met SSC aspirants, who have been protesting against the alleged paper leak of the combined graduate level exam, on Sunday. He urged the aspirants to walk on the path of non-violence and demanded the government to take action in this regard.


"While opposing injustice and harassment, it is extremely important to walk on the path of non-violence. This strengthens the democracy," he told the protestors.


The students have been protesting outside the SSC office at Delhi's CGO complex since February 27, seeking a CBI probe into the alleged paper leak in the Combined Graduate-Level (CGL) exam. The SSC conducts examinations for recruitment to lower categories of posts in the central government.


(With agency inputs)