Mahabodhi Mahavihara illuminated on Friday, the first time since last Sunday’s blasts. Picture by Suman

Bodhgaya, July 12: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team probing the serial blasts has come up against a steep rock as Bihar doesn’t have a notified court to handle its cases.

Sources said that NIA counsel Lalan Kumar Singh has been running from pillar to post to obtain the order for sending the explosion samples for tests to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Calcutta.

Sources in the NIA said that additional district and sessions judge I (Patna) Om Prakash Sinha, who was supposed to handle such cases in the absence of any designated NIA court in the state, was transferred to Bettiah around three weeks ago.

In the absence of Sinha, Anil Kumar Singh, additional district and sessions judge II, was assigned to deal with the matter. NIA counsel Singh reached Anil Singh’s court today to obtain the order to despatch the exhibits, but was told that the judge is on leave.

Finding no way out, the counsel approached the additional district and sessions judge XIV, B.K. Rai, who has kept the petition for his consideration.

A senior NIA official, who spoke under cover of anonymity, said the probe into the serial blasts case would be delayed due to the absence of the court order. “The agency can’t send the exhibits (samples) to the CFSL without the order of the competent court,” the officer said.

NIA counsel Singh refused to comment. “I am not supposed to share anything with the media,” he said.

The NIA source said they were now going through the process of “alienation of the suspects”. “Once that is complete, we will zero in on the prime suspects,” he said.

“Though the CCTV footage is of poor quality, some people have been spotted moving in a suspicious manner near the blast sites. We are trying to locate them,” he said, adding that the agency also didn’t want to make a wrong move. “The release of all the five persons, including four from Patna, who were earlier detained for questioning, is enough to tell the people that the agency doesn’t intend to implicate any innocent person in the case,” he asserted.

NIA officials headed by deputy inspector-general Mukesh Kumar Singh today recorded the statements of some shopkeepers and local residents who were present outside the Mahavihara when the bombs went off last Sunday. The investigating officials are also fishing out the credentials of the security guards deployed on the premises.

Sources said the sleuths are trying to cull out information about factories which manufactured the small LPG cylinders used to pack in the explosives.

An investigator, who is considered an expert in detecting explosives, said empty LPG cylinders weighing between 2kg and 2.5kg were filled with ammonium nitrate, sulphur, potassium and shrapnel and then connected with a detonator, battery and clocks bearing the brand name Lotus to make the bombs. Sources said the shops dealing in LPG cylinders and Lotus brand clocks have downed their shutters ever since the NIA team started the probe.