Till now UP politicians grabbed headlines for foot-in-the-mouth statements or criminal cases or other varied indiscretions. But now one of the ilk seems to have scaled new heights of infamy and indignity.

Ram Murti Verma, minister of state for backward classes welfare in the Akhilesh Yadav regime, has been booked for the murder of a journalist; and this is no ordinary murder but a grisly one, to say the least.

Local policemen in Shahjahanpur district are alleged to have poured petrol over the young journalist Jagendra Singh and set him on fire while his family members watched in horror. This happened on June 1, and Jagendra died of severe burns at a hospital in Lucknow on Monday.

The journalist had drawn the minister's ire for writing a post on Facebook, which gave details of how the minister had grabbed land worth crores of rupees in Shahjahanpur. In another post, Jagendra wrote of a rape case in which the minister was allegedly involved. His statement, charging the minister for conspiring to eliminate him, has been recorded by several TV news channels here.

In an FIR registered on Tuesday – that too after the media furore over the incident – the minister and the abetting cops have been charged with murder under section 302 of the IPC.

A total of six people have been named in the FIR but alarmingly enough, no one has been arrested yet. What is even more startling is the fact that the minister continues to enjoy his official position despite being named as the prime accused in the ghastly murder.

"An inquiry has been ordered into the matter," is all that an official spokesman told reporters here on Tuesday evening.

All over a Facebook postThe journalist, Jagendra Singh, had drawn the ire of minister of state for backward classes welfare Ram Murti Verma for writing a post on Facebook, which gave details of how the minister had grabbed land worth crores of rupees in Shahjahanpur. In another post, Jagendra wrote of a rape case in which the minister was allegedly involved. His statement, charging the minister for conspiring to eliminate him, has been recorded by several TV news channels here.