Patna police did a turncoat by arresting three people for kidnapping Saurabh Kumar, after staunchly maintaining for nine months that the youth had not been abducted but had run away from home.

Saurabh, 16, a resident of road number 21 under the jurisdiction of Gardanibagh police station in south Patna, had left home on November 20 last year, telling his grandmother that he would be back the next day. He never came back. Then station house officer of Gardanibagh police station Nityanand Shukla had claimed that Saurabh had run away because of a love affair.

On Thursday afternoon, Saurabh’s family was in for a shock when the police told them that some people had been arrested in connection with Saurabh’s disappearance.

Police sources on Friday said three people, identified as Dharamraj, Hareram and Dheeraj, have been arrested in connection with the case. While Hareram and Dheeraj are already in a prison in Hajipur in connection with another kidnapping case, a special team had nabbed Dharamraj from New Delhi.

During interrogation, Dharamraj informed the police that Saurabh was murdered on November 27 last year, and his body had been buried. The skeleton was recovered on Thursday.

But the family are not willing to believe the police claim. Instead, they claim that the cops were working overtime to pronounce Saurabh dead and close the case because of pressure from Patna High Court to conduct the investigation effectively.

Saurabh’s grandfather Dinesh Singh told The Telegraph: “I have never heard of the people who have been arrested in connection Saurabh’s kidnap. We had approached Patna High Court in December last year, as the police were not doing much to recover my grandson though we were getting ransom calls. The high court asked the police to pull up their socks and push ahead with the investigation. The next hearing was scheduled on July 25. So, the cops are just cooking up an incident to bring the case to a closure.”

He added: “We don’t believe that Saurabh has been killed.”

Saurabh’s father, Rakesh Singh, works at a petrol pump at Harnaut in Nalanda district.

After Saurabh went missing, the family got a ransom call on November 21. The caller demanded Rs 25 lakh.

The family rushed to the Gardanibagh police station, where the officers lodged a missing diary instead of a kidnapping FIR.

The family got another ransom call on November 22. The next day, they went to the director-general of police with a petition. The top cop instructed then Patna city superintendent of police Upendra Sharma to take action immediately.

On November 27, personnel from the local Gardanibagh police station visited the house of the victim for the first time to conduct investigation.

“We were getting ransom calls constantly. On November 24, we got a call asking us to carry a bag with money to the Zero Mile area. The police team was with us. We filled the bag with useless documents and papers and followed the instructions,” said Dinesh Singh.

He added: “The caller then instructed us to go to Jandaha in Hajipur. Once we reached the spot, the caller told us to throw the bag into an area covered with bushes. We did it and returned home.

“The next day, we got a call again. The caller told us that Saurabh would be killed as we were cooperating with the police. He also reduced the ransom amount to Rs 21 lakh. On November 26, we got a call again and we were allowed to talk to Saurabh for the first time. After that we got no more calls.”

Asked what progress the police had made in Saurabh’s kidnap case in January this year, former Gardanibagh station house officer Nityanand Shukla had said: “Aab khud hi bhaag gaya hai toh police kya karegi? (If he has run away on his own, what can the police do?)”

Dinesh said: “We suspect other people were involved in the case. One Ashutosh and a girl called Anupam, who used to study in the same coaching centre at Lodhipur as Saurabh, were the main conspirators. Some other people, who are all residents of Patna, were also involved.”

He added: “We want the cops to find our grandson.”

Police, however, claim that the investigation is complete.

Patna senior superintendent of police Amrit Raj told The Telegraph: “We cannot say for sure if the skeleton is that of Saurabh. A forensic investigation has to be conducted for it. The arrested people said they buried Saurabh’s body on the spot. Policemen found the remains at the spot. That’s all we can say at the moment.”