Withdrawn letter on prohibition in Bihar leaves govt embarrassed

The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has been left with egg on its face on a missive, now withdrawn, flagging the alleged complicity of police and excise department officials and local elected representatives in the violation of the stringent prohibition law.

The letter dated January 01 was issued by the Superintendent of Police (prohibition) to all district police chiefs and railway SPs in the state.

The missive, screenshots of which have gone viral on the social media, had referred to a note from the DGP dated December 11 last, the contents of which are not known. In the communication, the recipients had been asked to get movable and fixed assets of excise department officials surveyed and mobile locations of their family members examined and take suitable action if links with "liquor mafia" were established.

The controversially worded letter, which was abruptly withdrawn vide a communication dated January 19, had rued "mockery of prohibition law in Bihar" and stated "a probe of benami wealth gathered by conniving officials will cause a flutter in government departments".

Opposition parties like the Congress and the RJD have been alleging that bootlegging was thriving ever since ban on sale and consumption of alcohol was imposed in April, 2016 and people were getting bottles of liquor delivered to their homes if they were willing to pay a hefty sum and had the right connections.

The Opposition parties latched on the opportunity to train their guns at the government. They also questioned the transfer of Rakesh Kumar Sinha, the SP (Prohibition), who was sent to the special branch in a reshuffle on Tuesday in which seven IPS officers were transferred. Meanwhile, the police headquarters on Wednesday came out with a statement voicing disapproval of the letter "issued without deep thinking".

It stated that the Deputy SP (Administration) of the department of prohibition, supposedly responsible for drafting of letters, has been asked to come out with an "explanation".