An alleged incident of an old Dhoti clad man being stopped on Thursday from boarding the Delhi-bound Kanpur-New Delhi Shatabdi Express despite having a confirmed ticket is being widely reported in the mainstream media. The media reports alleged that the man was not allowed to board the train due to his attire. This further went viral after former Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas shared it on Twitter tagging Minister of Railways and Commerce Piyush Goyal in his post.
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According to reports, an 82-year Ram Avadh Das had alleged that he was not allowed to board the train by a GRP personnel and an attendant despite having a confirmed ticket because of his Gandhi-like attire. However, the allegations levelled by Das were not found to be true after investigation.
As per the investigation report, Ram Awadh Das reached the Etawah railway station and approached the RPF staff personnel, Dalbir Singh, who was standing near the power car coach whether he could board the coach. Since the coach was a power car (coach with generators), Singh asked Das to board another coach. But Das misunderstood the instruction and assumed that he was being prevented from boarding the coach by the cop for his attire. Moreover, the train had an only 2-minute stoppage at the station and Das could not walk fast enough due to old age to board another coach. As a result, he missed the train. This was confirmed by Ram Avadh Das himself.
After the train left, Das met station master Prince Raj Yadav to lodge a complaint. the station master offered him a seat in Magadh Express which was the next train on the route, but Das declined it saying that he had been insulted by the Railways and submitted his complaint in the log book kept with the official.
Therefore, it is clear that Ram Awadh Das was asked to board his correct coach as he went to the power car which is not passengers, and he was not prevented from boarding the train due to his attire. It is completely fake news to claim the same, in an effort to malign Indian Railways and the current government. It is also shocking that while some media reports mention the actual reason for the incident, they still carry the false allegation in their headlines, indicating their mischievous objective.