A leaked letter by a superintendent of police flagging the complicity of excise officials, public representatives and police officers in flouting the liquor ban in Bihar has embarrassed the Nitish Kumar government.

The January 6 letter by SP (prohibition) Rakesh Kumar Sinha, a 2012-batch IPS officer, was hurriedly withdrawn after the authorities noticed it circulating on social media on Tuesday. Sinha was quickly transferred.

However, by Wednesday evening, even the letter withdrawing the earlier one had gone viral, leaving the government with more egg on its face.

The Opposition has seized its chance to question Nitish’s seriousness about prohibition, a pet project he had introduced in 2016 through a legislation but whose implementation has run into a wall of corruption since the beginning.

Sinha had marked his letter to all district and railway SPs, asking them to probe the movable and immovable properties of excise department officials.

“People are selling and purchasing liquor in all police station areas across Bihar by bribing excise inspectors, sub-inspectors and constables. Local public representatives are also involved in it, due to which the liquor ban has become a joke,” the letter said.

“If a probe is conducted into the movable and immovable assets acquired by these officials and their relatives, it will create a sensation in the government department.”

It added: “Take necessary action after investigating the properties of these officials along with (those of) their relatives, and also probing the location of their mobile phones with those belonging to the liquor mafia to check the sale and purchase of alcohol.”

Police sources said that after Sinha’s transfer, the officer who replaced him was asked to issue another letter withdrawing the previous one.

Police headquarters has asked the DSP (administration) in the prohibition division, who is supposedly responsible for drafting and issuing letters, to explain “why the particular letter (Sinha’s) was issued without giving it a serious thought”.

A deeply entrenched and well-heeled mafia has established liquor supply routes and an expansive distribution network in collusion with police and excise officials. Even some station house officers have been caught selling liquor.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said: “The prohibition SP wrote to his counterparts in the districts that officials and public representatives are involved in selling liquor despite the ban. However, the liquor mafia with connections up to the CM House got the SP transferred. This is the real face of Nitish Kumar.”