Yash Lakhotia’s school, MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth, was closed on Monday to mourn his death. (Sanat Kr Sinha)

Yash Lakhotia’s family members admitted on Monday that they had known Santosh Singh, the prime accused in the abduction and murder of the seven-year-old, for the past 10 years.

A day earlier, the Lakhotias had denied any association with Santosh, who they said was only a customer in their sweetmeat shop Panch Bhog.

A family member who did not want to be identified said Santosh figured on the list of seven suspects that the Lakhotias had handed over to police. “Yes, we have named Santosh among the suspects. We know him for the past 10 years,” said the family member.

“He often came to our flat asking for money. We could not refuse him as he was a notorious criminal. But we never gave him more than Rs 500 at a time,” he added.

The police team that reached Bihar early on Monday in search of Santosh — he has been absconding since Yash’s abduction last Thursday — had yet to come across any leads to the whereabouts of the alleged mastermind.

The team is being accompanied by Santosh’s nephew Ganesh Chowdhury, who worked in Panch Bhog and has been arrested for being allegedly involved in the abduction and murder.

Apart from Santosh, the sleuths are also checking the antecedents of the six others named by the Lakhotias. “A search is on for two associates of Santosh, identified as Gabbar and Bapi. We have learnt that they had been with Santosh when Yash was killed,” an officer said.

The sleuths said Yash might not have been confined in a Foreshore Road godown before being murdered, as was earlier believed.

“We suspect that he had been killed somewhere else and the body was dumped in a bush on Foreshore Road, around 2 km from the Lakhotias’ flat on GT Road, early on Saturday,” said an officer investigating the case.

A senior officer said the Lakhotias had initially been reluctant to name Santosh as one of the suspects. “We were surprised at their attempt to hush up their association with Santosh. They seem to have been scared of him,” he added.

“He (Santosh) is still at large and we did not want to compound our problems… Already, we are in trouble following Yash’s death,” said the family member.

Home secretary Ardhendu Sen during the day summoned the Howrah superintendent of police, Niraj Kumar Singh, to enquire about the abduction and murder of the Class II student. “I wanted to be briefed about the probe. The district police chief was asked to arrest the culprits at the earliest,” said Sen.