The Maharashtra government has asked the CBI to probe the suicide of former senior journalist Charudatta Deshpande last year, an official said here Friday.

 

 Acceding to requests from various quarters, including The Press Club of Mumbai, Home Minister R. R. Patil transferred the investigations to the central agency late Thursday.

 

 The Press Club and Deshpande's family members had given separate letters to Patil urging that the probe into charges of abetment of suicide against some Tata Steel officials had run aground and were deliberately not being pursued by police.

 

 Deshpande, a former senior journalist and a public relations executive with Tata Steel, had committed suicide June 28, 2013.