NullPointerException is thrown while merging edit log and image

Our secondary name node is not able to start on NullPointerException:
ERROR org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSDirectory.unprotectedSetTimes(FSDirectory.java:1232)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSDirectory.unprotectedSetTimes(FSDirectory.java:1221)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSEditLog.loadFSEdits(FSEditLog.java:776)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.FSImage.loadFSEdits(FSImage.java:992)
at
org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode$CheckpointStorage.doMerge(SecondaryNameNode.java:590)
at
org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode$CheckpointStorage.access$000(SecondaryNameNode.java:473)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode.doMerge(SecondaryNameNode.java:350)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode.doCheckpoint(SecondaryNameNode.java:314)
at org.apache.hadoop.hdfs.server.namenode.SecondaryNameNode.run(SecondaryNameNode.java:225)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

This was caused by setting access time on a non-existent file.