Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at a news meet outside the Mahabodhi Mahavihara in Bodhgaya on Wednesday. Picture by Suman

Patna, July 10: The probe into Bodhgaya serial blasts gained momentum today after Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s visit to the temple town with the National Investigation Agency lodging a separate FIR and constituting six teams for detailed investigation.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which formally took over the investigation yesterday, lodged a separate FIR with its police station and constituted the six probe teams, comprising officials from its Delhi and Lucknow units. Seven officers in the rank of deputy superintendent of police and inspector from Bihar police have also been engaged in the investigation. They would assist the investigating teams of the agency.

Sources in the NIA told PTI that the terror module involved in the Bodhgaya temple blasts could be a new one as the unexploded improvised explosive devices (IEDs) did not have signatures of bombs used in previous terror strikes across the country. A preliminary analysis of three unexploded IEDs recovered from the Mahabodhi temple did not match with the IEDs did not match any previous blasts, which indicates that a new module could have been involved in the incident.

The sources said it was a very preliminary inference drawn by the investigators and further investigation by the six teams would clarify the picture.

“This is a complex case and one can’t jump to any conclusion in a day or two. After all, we have to probe the case scientifically,” a senior NIA officer said.

The NIA officials complained that they were not getting full view of the Mahabodhi Mahavihara campus in the CCTV footage as the cameras were of inferior quality. Sources said the 16 CCTV cameras installed on the campus gave truncated view, making the task difficult for the investigators.

Zero-lux cameras have been installed at the Mahabodhi temple. They are devoid of night vision devices, a source said, adding that one of the cameras was out of order.

The lux is the unit for measuring the light that falls on an object. It is the European equivalent of the British foot-candle (or lumen).

Specifically, one lux equals the light that falls on a 1sqm surface that is 1m away from a single candle. Ten lux equals the light produced by 10 candles 1m away.

Sources said the officials of the district police and the civil administration had earlier suggested the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) to upgrade the cameras and enhance the security of the holy site. “I don’t know why the BTMC officials didn’t upgrade the CCTV cameras, which could have been bought in lakhs and not in crores. The BTMC gets huge funds for the maintenance of the sacred temple,” an investigator said.

While the NIA intensified its probe, the four persons detained yesterday for interrogation were released today after no evidence was found against them.

“The four were detained for questioning on the basis of the CCTV footage, which showed them present near the temple early on Sunday morning,” said Patna city superintendent of police Jayant Kant.

He said the officials of the NIA and other intelligence agencies quizzed the four for more than eight hours but did not find any evidence against them. “They were let off with an instruction to appear before the investigation agency whenever they were summoned,” he said.

During interrogation, the four, including a leader of the JD(U)’s youth wing, told the interrogators that they had booked two rooms in a hotel near the Bodhgaya temple and checked out after two hours (around 6.30am) coming to know about the blasts. “After the hotel employees told us about the serial blasts near the temple, we decided to return to Patna,” an officer said quoting one of the four detained persons.

The four youngsters, including a woman, had gone on a tour to Bodhgaya. “The CCTV footage captured us standing near the world heritage site. We had gone there around 4.30am, but returned to the hotel after coming to know that the gates would open for the public after 5am,” the officer quoted one of them as having told the interrogators.