Withdrawn letter on prohibition in Bihar leaves govt embarrassed

The Nitish Kumar government in Biharhas been left with egg on its face on a missive, nowwithdrawn, flagging the alleged complicity of police andexcise department officials and local elected representativesin the violation of the stringent prohibition law.

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

The missive, screenshots of which have gone viral on thesocial media, had referred to a note from the DGP datedDecember 11 last, the contents of which are not known.

In the communication, the recipients had been asked toget movable and fixed assets of excise department officialssurveyed and mobile locations of their family members examinedand take suitable action if links with ''liquor mafia'' wereestablished.

The controversially worded letter, which was abruptlywithdrawn vide a communication dated January 19, had rued''mockery of prohibition law in Bihar'' and stated ''a probe ofbenami wealth gathered by conniving officials will cause aflutter in government departments''.

Opposition parties like the Congress and the RJD have beenalleging that bootlegging was thriving ever since ban on saleand consumption of alcohol was imposed in April, 2016 andpeople were getting bottles of liquor delivered to their homesif they were willing to pay a hefty sum and had the rightconnections.

The opposition parties latched on the opportunity totrain 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 areshuffle on Tuesday in which seven IPS officers weretransferred.

Meanwhile, the police headquarters on Wednesday came outwith a statement voicing disapproval of the letter ''issuedwithout deep thinking''.

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

PTI NACSNS SNS