Options -i and -n will not work when applied to an empty line

This is the correct output
    $ export LC_ALL=C
    $ printf 'a\n\nb\n' | ./grep -in '^$'
    2:

But if I run in a UTF-8 locale like this:
    $ export LC_ALL=en_US.utf8
    $ printf 'a\n\nb\n' | ./grep -in '^$'

I am flabbergasted to see this erroneous output:

    2:3:

Worse still, the following command prints 0 when there is no match(!):

    $ export LC_ALL=en_US.utf8
    $ seq 2 | ./grep -i '^$'; echo $?
    0

With -n, and a larger input, the problem is a little clearer:
    $ export LC_ALL=en_US.utf8
    $ seq 9 | ./grep -in '^$'
    2:4:6:8:10:12:14:16:

The correct output would be nothing to be printed and
    $ export LC_ALL=en_US.utf8
    $ seq 9 | ./grep -i '^$'; echo $?
    1