Relenting to the pressure of agitating students, the Modi government on Monday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the alleged leak of SSC CGL Tier 2 examination held between February 17 and February 21.

“We have accepted demands of protesting candidates and have given orders for a CBI inquiry, protests should now stop,” news agency ANI quoted Home Minister Rajnath Singh as saying.

After days of protests by candidates for Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exam, the Supreme Court on Monday said that it will hear the plea seeking an investigation against the alleged leak of examination paper for the combined graduate level exam – SSC CGL tier 2 on March 12.

On Sunday, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), which conducts examination for subordinate services, decided to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged paper leaks in one of its tests held on February 21.

In a statement, SSC chairman Ashim Khurana said that a delegation of candidates, who were protesting against the alleged paper leaks, met him along with Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and handed over a memorandum.

“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 said.

Various leaders have openly supported the aspirants during their protest, asking the government to intervene. Social activist Anna Hazare, Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor and Delhi BJP leader Manoj Tiwari are a few of the people who came to meet the aspirants at their protest site.

“The Commission after having heard the delegation agreed for recommending to the Department of Personnel and Training to request the Government to conduct a CBI enquiry into all the allegations pertaining to conduct of CGL (Tier-II) Examination 2017 held from February 17 to February 22, 2018 including alleged leakage of questions, if any, alleged deficiencies observed in the conduct of the examinations by the service provider, if any, and other related issues.

“It was also agreed that all evidences of examination related malpractices submitted by the protesting candidates, including the screenshots of the questions taken during the examination from February 17 to February 22, 2018, will be handed over to the CBI for enquiry,” read the Chairman’s note.

However, the job aspirants have refused to disperse, demanding a more “unambiguous” directive from the government into the matter.

“This is just a tactic of the government to divert the attention and disperse the crowd.
The Chairman is even now only ‘requesting’ a CBI probe and ‘requesting’ for re-examination, whereas he should be ordering for both unequivocally,” Umesh Yadav, one of the protesters, told IANS over the phone.

“Chairman has tried to deceive again, He is not addressing the issues the way we demanded… We will not stop the protest. It continues,” he said.