BSP chief Mayawati at Mahabodhi Mahavihara in Bodhgaya on Monday. Picture by Suman

Gaya, July 15: The Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC)’s move to terminate the contract of the private security agency to secure the premises of Mahabodhi Mahavihara could snowball into a legal battle.

In a letter to the agency director, Sujay Saurabh, on Sunday, BTMC secretary Nangzey Dorjee communicated that the committee unanimously decided in a meeting on July 12 to remove all the 16 security guards and a security supervisor of the private agency, Cobra. A day on, the security agency’s area manager Lalan Mishra said they would seek their counsel’s legal opinion.

Earlier, on July 8, the BTMC secretary had served a notice on the company asking it to explain security lapses. In the notice, the BTMC mentioned that the guards’ duty hours were from 5am to 9pm. Referring to Cobra’s July 11 reply, Dorjee said it was taken up at BTMC’s July 12 meeting and, in light of the seriousness of the blasts, found unsatisfactory.

The BTMC secretary had also served a show cause notice on four BTMC guards on duty from 10pm on July 6 to 6am on July 7. The four had patrolled the premises at night and reported they did not notice any unusual activity. While Cobra’s services have been terminated, the BTMC allowed its own guards to continue.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar pulled up the BTMC today for handing the temple’s internal security to a private agency. “The BTMC should have been alert towards the temple’s security. After the blasts, it came to light that BTMC had deployed a private agency for the temple’s internal security,” he said.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), meanwhile, is still probing when the bombs were planted. According to CCTV footage shown by the BTMC, the first bomb went off at 5.40.26am and the second one at 5.41.50am, followed by two more at two-minute intervals. The NIA officials believe the interval between the time when the bombs were planted and went off could not be over two hours. The timers fixed to the cylinders were China-made needle clocks, not digital ones. So, the bombs may have been planted early on July 7. As many as 13 devotees were at the Mahavihara that night for meditation under special permission from the Mahavihara chief priest. All the 13 were sitting either under the Bodhi tree or around it till 4am. As one bomb went off under the Bodhi tree, it is unlikely it was planted before 4am.

The CCTV footage had shown a person in a civara (costume worn by Buddhist monk) who later left it near the Bodhi tree. The 13 devotees had reported seeing a person in a civara moving around with a bag that night. The NIA has sent the civara, a bag and some other items for DNA tests at Centre for DNA, Fingerprinting and Diagnostic Centre, Hyderabad.

The NIA has also prepared sketches of three suspects. In the footage, the three youths, around 18-22 years old, were spotted towards the western end of Mahavihara and appeared to be in a hurry.

In another development, the NIA on Sunday night released the Bengali youth they had detained a day before. The 30-year-old mentally challenged youth was detained on the basis of statements of the residents of the area. He said his name was Rahul and he was from Calcutta. He had been living in the Bodhgaya premises for the past 25 days but could not recall when and how he reached Bodhgaya.