Citing the autopsy report which stated that Ansari died of 'cardiac arrest', the Jharkhand Police dropped murder charge and filed a chargesheet under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
However, the UP Police has denied the allegations by the boy's family and claimed that an eye witness had seen the teenager set himself ablaze.
The 49 celebrities, who have signed the letter include Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashyap, Aparna Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma, Soumita Chatterjee, among others.
The locals alleged that the men were moving around with a pick-up van, which already had a cow in it.
Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai was replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on whether incidents of mob lynching have increased in the last six months in the country.
At a meeting of the Gau Sewa Aayog, Yogi said that the Gau Sewa Aayog should also check illegal smugglings of cows and make regular inspections of cow shelters.
Tabrez Ansari was allegedly tied to a pole and thrashed with sticks by a mob and forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman'at Dhatkidih village in Jharkhand.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that Jharkhand had become a 'factory of lynching and violence with Dalits and Muslims getting killed every week'.
The incident comes into light after a 22-year-old youth died in Jharkhand after being attacked by a mob for hours on suspicion of theft and forced to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'.
Ansari’s wife has questioned the role of the police in her husband’s death alleging that he was not given timely medical treatment.
