New Delhi: The Centre has decided that investigations into the alleged leak of question papers of the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) conducted last month would be carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The decision was announced by Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday.

“The government has accepted the demands of a large number of students who have been agitating for the last few days. Investigations into the paper leak would now be conducted by the CBI,” Mr Singh said.

Earlier the SSC, which organises Central examinations for all subordinate services, had also recommended CBI investigations into the paper leak for the Combined Graduate Level (Tier-II) Examination 2017, which were conducted between February 17 to 22.

The home minister also appealed to the agitating students to stop their protest outside the SSC headquarters in the capital now that the government had accepted their demand for a CBI probe. These students have been protesting since February 27 at the SSC office.

Even Delhi BJP chief MP Manoj Tiwari had met SSC chief Ashim Khurana earlier along with some of the protesting students with the demand for a CBI investigation.

Mr Tiwari and the students had also met the Mr Singh and briefed hi in detail about the issue.

The SSC in a statement issued earlier had clarified that it too was in favour of a CBI probe and had suggested to the department of personnel and training to let the CBI investigate reports of the leak of Paper-I on February 21 as well as some other related issues.