The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested three persons in connection with the murder of a journalist and his friend in Balrampur.

The trio, identified as Lalit Mishra, Keshvanand Mishra alias Rinku and Akram Ali, were arrested from a jungle near Bahadurpur crossing, police said and added that the three confessed to their crime, news agency PTI reported.

Journalist Rakesh Singh, 35, and his friend Pintu Sahu were charred to death in a fire that broke out in his village house under Kotwali Dehat police station area in Balampur district.

Superintendent of Police, Balrampur, Devranjan Verma said, “Keshvanand's mother was a village head and Rakesh Singh had exposed siphoning off of funds under her. The accused hold a grudge against Singh over it”, PTI stated in its report.

They went to his house on the pretext of talks. They made Singh and his friends consume alcohol and later committed the crime, the SP said.

He also said alcohol-based sanitiser was used to burn the house so that the murder could look like an accident.

“To burn the house using the chemical, Lalit Mishra and Keshvanand Mishra took the help of Akram Ali alias Abdul Qadir, who is an expert in executing incidents like these," the police officer was quoted as saying by PTI.

Rakesh Singh, 35, working for a local newspaper, and his friend Pintu Sahu, 32, had suffered serious burns in the fire at the house in Kalwari village.

While Sahu died on the spot, Singh suffered 90 per cent burns and was referred to a Lucknow hospital where he succumbed to the injuries.