The door of the room where the two were staying was locked from outside, police said (Representational)
A journalist was killed along with another man when a house, in which they were staying, was allegedly set on fire at a village in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur on Saturday night.
The two men have been identified as Rakesh Singh and Pintu Sahu, the police said.
They were rushed to the hospital by the police in an ambulance where Pintu Sahu was declared dead and Rakesh Singh was referred to the Lucknow Civil hospital where he died from his injuries.
The door of their room was locked from outside, leading the police to suspect it to be a case of murder, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Balrampur Dev Ranjan Verma said.
The fire had broken out in one room causing a wall of the house to collapse. A team of forensic experts has also visited the spot, Mr Verma said.
Vibha Singh, the wife of journalist Rakesh Singh, who had gone to visit her relatives with their two children, hinted at murder and sought a police investigation into the matter. Talking to reporters on Sunday, Ms Singh said she was assured by the police that the case will be resolved in a couple of days, But now that she is unable to keep her faith in the police, she threatened to immolate herself, along with her children, if the accused are not arrested.
The district magistrate and superintendent of police inspected the crime scene.
"Journalist Rakesh Singh was working with a daily newspaper. The cause of the fire in the room, where the journalist and his friend were staying, is not clear yet. We are investigating the crime scene with help from the forensic department," Dev Ranjan Verma said.
Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar told news agency ANI that according to the information shared by the SP of Balrampur, the door was closed from outside when the incident took place. A case of murder has been registered. Five people have been detained on the basis of the names given by the victim.