[caption id="attachment_618" align="alignleft" width="976"] A video showing Ansari pleading for his life has been widely circulated on social media[/caption] Ten peoples were sentenced to ten years in prison by an Indian court for killing a Muslim man by assaulting him four years prior. In the eastern state of Jharkhand, Tabrez Ansari, 24, passed away a few days after being attacked by individuals who thought he had stolen a motorcycle. Ansari was forced to recite chants honoring Hindu gods while pleading for his life in a video that went viral and caused a great deal of indignation in India. His relatives said that despite his injuries, cops refused to treat him. Any wrongdoing was refuted by the state police. Ansari was shown on camera being attacked by the mob while being tied to an electricity pole on the night of June 19, 2019, and his face was covered in blood and tears. His assailants made him continuously scream "Jai Shri Ram," which means "hail Lord Ram" or "victory to Lord Ram" in Hindi. Ansari followed instructions, but the mob continued to attack him all night. The following day after being turned over to authorities, he was taken into custody for theft. His relatives had claimed that they had been denied access to him. Ansari went to the hospital on June 22 with complaints of nausea, vomiting, and chest pain; however, after being admitted, he passed away from the wounds he had received in the assault. Judge Amit Shekhar of the trial court condemned the 10 men last Thursday, finding them "guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder". The police had first come under fire for not pressing the more serious murder accusation. In a subsequent charge sheet, they did bring up murder charges against each and every suspect. The judge, however, ruled that there was insufficient proof to find the accused guilty of murder. Ansari's lynching by a Hindu mob was not an isolated incident - there have been several similar incidents reported in India in recent years where Muslims have been attacked by so-called "cow vigilantes" over rumours that they had eaten beef, or that they were trying to smuggle cows - an animal many Hindus consider holy - for slaughter. Cow slaughter is illegal in many Indian states. The attacks on the minority community have been condemned by opposition politicians. Senior Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi had described Ansari's lynching as a "blot on humanity". Critics say anti-Muslim violence has risen since 2014 under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They say the prime minister has not condemned such attacks quickly or strongly enough. The government denies this and points out that days after Ansari's killing, Mr Modi said he was "pained" by the assault. Earlier too he had said that "killing people in the name of cow was "unacceptable".