New Delhi, Sep 5 (IANS): The railways on Friday refuted the claims that Rajdhani Express travelled 535 km with a lone woman passenger after she denied to deboard the train.
The refutal came after several media reports claimed that the Indian Railways has to take the Rajdhani Express to Ranchi after the woman passenger denied deboarding the train at Daltonganj railway station due to an ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagatas at Tori Junction.
Railway Ministry spokesperson DJ Narain said, "Tana Bhagat organization continues to block the rail tracks. Since the rake of Rajdhani Express could not have remained stranded at a wayside station, it had to be taken to the base depot at Ranchi."
"Somehow the woman came to know that rake is going to Ranchi and therefore remained on the train. There was certainly no pressure whatsoever from the lady which forced Railway to divert the trains," he said.
"She did not force anyone. The empty rake was already in order to move to Ranchi," Narain said adding that whenever there is an unforeseen blockade this is standard protocol.
It was earlier claimed that the New Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani Express, which remained stranded at Daltonganj station for several hours on Thursday, due to the ongoing agitation of Tana Bhagats at Tori Junction, reached Ranchi early on Friday with a lone woman passenger.
The news reports claimed that the remaining 930 passengers on board the Rajdhani Express were ferried from Daltonganj Station to Ranchi by bus but railway officials could not convince the woman, Ananya, to take an alternative mode of transport arranged by the district administration.
The train was diverted via Gaya, Gomoh and Bokaro instead of going to Ranchi directly via Daltonganj.