The stage is being set to give a clean chit to Ram Murti Verma, Uttar Pradesh Backward Classes Welfare Minister, who was accused of getting the social-media journalist Jagendra Singh burnt to death for publishing reports against him.

The Shahjahanpur police are in the process of giving the clean chit in its report to the DGP about the burning and subsequent death of the journalist, a reliable source told The Hindu. The report is likely to conclude that Singh had committed suicide, a theory which the police held as a likely possibility.