A Muslim boy in India claims he was set on fire for refusing to chant Hindu slogan 'Jai Shri Ram'.

The 15-year-old teenager said he was captured by four men in the Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh.

He refused to say the chant, which roughly translates as 'Hail Lord Ram', a Hindu god, on religious grounds.

'I was walking on Dudhari bridge when four men kidnapped me. Two of them tied my hand and third one started pouring kerosene. After which they set me on fire and ran away,' the boy said (stock of Dudhari area)

The men allegedly poured kerosene over him and set him alight, leaving him in a critical condition with 60 per cent burns over his body, Outlook India reported.

'I was walking on Dudhari bridge when four men kidnapped me. Two of them tied my hand and third one started pouring kerosene. After which they set me on fire and ran away,' the boy said.

However Chandauli police are treating the incident as suspicious and have reportedly claimed the boy set himself on fire.

'He's admitted in a hospital with 45 per cent burns,' Chandauli superintendent of police Kumar Singh told ANI news agency.

According to the officer, the boy gave different statements to different people and it seemed 'suspicious'.

He also claimed witnesses said they saw the 15-year-old set himself on fire.

However Chandauli police are treating the incident as suspicious and have reportedly claimed the boy set himself on fire (stock)

This would not be the first time people in India have been attacked for refusing to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'.

A young Muslim man accused of theft died in India in June, after a mob forced him to recite Hindu religious chants while beating him 'mercilessly' for hours.

Tabrez Ansari, 22, died in police custody on Saturday, four days after his ordeal at the hands of villagers from Dhatkidih in eastern Jharkand state, who accused him of breaking into a home with two other men and stealing a motorcycle.

The other two suspects reportedly escaped, but locals caught Ansari and forced him to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman' - 'Hail Lord Rama' and 'Hail Hanuman.'

Video of the incident on Tuesday June 18 shows Ansari tied to a tree, begging for mercy.

'Let us assume he was caught for theft, but tying him up and beating him for hours and then asking him to chant Jai Shri Ram is shocking,' Ansari's uncle Maqsood Alam told Indian Express.

'His mistake was that he was a Muslim, otherwise he would have been alive.'