Pictures of a burqa-clad man alleged to be a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) caught by residents of a small town in Uttar Pradesh while throwing beef into a Hindu temple, has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.

Since 30 September, several Twitter and Facebook accounts have shared the image of man.

The viral photos shared on social media shows, a bespectacled man clad in burqa, spotting a stubble being taken away by a group of people. It is believed he is being taken away to be handed to the police.

While there has been no confirmation as such on the veracity of the claim, there have been incidents in the past when extremist groups have thrown beef into Hindu temple or have put pork outside a mosque to stoke communal tensions.

Recently, a 50-year-old man was lynched by a mob in a village not very far from New Delhi over rumours that he and his family had consumed beef.

Later it emerged that the enraged villagers had charged at the house of the only Muslim family in the neighbourhood after  a call from the local temple. "It was only later that we got to know that an announcement that someone had slaughtered and eaten a cow had been made from the Hindu temple," his daughter Sajida told the AFP news agency.

According to a BBC report, the mob found mutton in the refrigerator belonging to the family of nine in Dadri village in Uttar Pradesh on the night of 28 September but despite the repeated assurance from the family that it was not beef, the 50-year old Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten with bricks, kicked and stabbed repeatedly.

Twitter Reactions

Jasmeet Kaur ‏@_JasmeetKaur 

My stomach churned !!

Arijit Upadhyay ‏@arijitu 

Now this is something, I would start my day with. Not every day do #RSS thugs get caught and exposed so badly.

Bacwaters ‏@bacwaters 

@waglenikhil Nikhil everything will be okay now. RSS cadre has started wearing burkhas and throwing beef at temples... Like in Azamgarh!

TechnicalBreakout ‏@EkbalTechnical 

Thank you Dear Rss and Bjp . I am 100% sure what kind of development you guys will do till 2019 .
And I am also.

JD Jyotirmay Das ‏@JD_JyotirmayDas

RSS activists throwing BEEF in temple allegedly!!! Is that the same thing happened in Silchar few days back?

komel kaur ‏@komelkaur 

To all citizens of India History repeats and the age old trick to ignite riots in India is used again.. Few RSS.