(1) The State Government may empower any Prohibition Officer to investigate offences under this Act.
(2) An officer empowered under sub-section (1) shall, in the conduct of such investigation, exercise the powers conferred by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, upon an officer in charge of a Police Station.
(3) Any Prohibition Officer to whom such officer is subordinate may, during the course of the investigation, take over the investigation himself or direct any other Prohibition Officer duly empowered, to conduct the same. The officer in conducting the investigation shall have the same powers under sub-sections (1) and (2) as if he was the Prohibition Officer appointed for the area or for the purpose of investigating the said offence.
(4) If the Prohibition Officer conducting the investigation is of opinion that there is not sufficient evidence or reasonable ground of suspicion to justify the forwarding of the accused to a Magistrate or that the person arrested may be discharged with a warning, such officer shall release him on his executing a bond with or without sureties to appear, if and when so required, before the Magistrate empowered to take cognizance of the offence and shall make full report of the case to his official superior and be guided by the order which he shall receive on such report.
(5) The powers of an officer empowered under this section shall be subject to such other modifications or instructions as the State Government may deem fit.
40