The police said a woman was carrying the bomb and was killed when it exploded.
A crude bomb exploded this morning at a court in Bihar, killing two people, including a policeman and a woman who was carrying the bomb in her bag. 14 others including lawyers and policemen have been hospitalised with injuries.
The explosion at Arrah, about 60 km from the state capital of Patna, comes amid tightened security across India ahead of the arrival of US President Barack Obama for a three-day visit to India on Sunday.
The explosion took place at 11.30 am as a van carrying prisoners pulled into the court. The woman bomber was reportedly seated near the place where the police van pulled in. As the prisoners were emerging, the bomb exploded. Two prisoners have reportedly escaped.
Senior police officer Gupteshwar Pandey said it was not clear whether the woman bomber had intended to carry out a suicide attack or whether she had planned to smuggle the explosives to the prisoners and the device had exploded prematurely. "It is still a matter of investigation whether she was a suicide bomber, as is being speculated by the media, or the bomb went off while she was carrying it," he said.