NEW DELHI — After apprehending a Muslim man suspected of stealing a motorcycle, the Hindu mob tied him to a lamppost and reportedly beat him for 12 hours while forcing him to chant praises to Hindu gods. Videos began circulating widely showing the attack last week in eastern India, which went on for so long that some of the footage was in daylight and other parts in darkness.

The police eventually intervened and took the victim, 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari, into custody. But it wasn’t until four days later, on Saturday, that officers in the Indian district of Seraikela-Kharsawan, in the east-central state of Jharkhand, finally took Mr. Ansari to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

The beating has become another signal of the bitter tensions in India between the country’s Hindu majority and its large Muslim minority. Part of the reason that the videos spread so quickly was not so much the vigilante beating — a relatively common occurrence in many areas of India — but the mob’s repeated efforts to force the victim to chant slogans often used by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, “Hail Lord Ram” and “Hail Hanuman,” referring to Hindu gods.

In the videos, Mr. Ansari is seen crying and pleading for mercy while being beaten with sticks and forced to repeat the chants.